What Is the Role of AI in Health Informatics?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a powerful force of growth in numerous industries, including health care. Through advancements in AI technology and machine learning (ML), health care providers can improve care and patient outcomes.

When it comes to health informatics, what is AI’s role in the field? As it turns out, AI helps health informaticists. From streamlining administrative work to analyzing patient data, AI tools increase efficiency across the board.

Key Takeaways:

• Health informatics, a data-heavy field, is experiencing positive changes through the introduction of artificial intelligence tools.
• AI improves efficiency and accuracy by analyzing data and offering support in clinical decision-making, which results in improved patient outcomes.
• Along with automating administrative tasks, AI’s future capabilities in the realm of digital health tools are also promising.

Understanding Health Informatics

Before you can understand AI’s role in health informatics, you may need an introduction to the field. Health informatics (or health care informatics) utilizes data, information, and knowledge to improve health care delivery and patient health overall.

Health informatics professionals often draw from data science, analytics, and health information management to do their jobs. They are also concerned with protecting patient privacy and improving the information systems that house patient data.

The Role of AI in Health Informatics

From this description alone, some potential connections already exist between health informatics and AI. From streamlining health care administration to aiding in the diagnostic process, AI can directly support doctors in providing timely and accurate patient care.

Turning Data into Precision Medicine

Health informatics focuses on the efficient storage, retrieval, and use of health care data, so a top-of-mind concern is how to efficiently analyze large quantities of data. That’s where AI comes in.

With the power of AI tools, health care providers can dedicate themselves to precision medicine, an approach that takes into account a patient’s medical history, genetic data, and other individualized risk factors. This also allows a provider to reach a diagnosis faster while cutting down operational costs.

Enhancing Clinical Decision Support with Predictive Analysis

AI programs that assist with clinical decisions are also making an impact in the world of health care. Some question the credibility of using these AI tools for diagnostic purposes. However, scientific literature suggests that clinical decision support systems may be more efficient and less prone to error than clinicians.

Machine learning (ML) is one form of AI that is key to health informatics. These AI programs possess artificial neural networks, allowing them to identify and accurately predict patterns. This could be based off a patient’s health history or broader trends of illness or disease in a community. Predictive analysis is complicated and time-consuming; therefore, AI alleviates some of the burden on clinicians while still providing them with these important data insights.

Reducing Administrative Burden through Automation

Clinical settings aren’t the only area in which AI can improve workflow. Health informatics involves extensive work with data and electronic health records, processes which are often slowed down by human error. Therefore, AI can be used to automate and optimize these and other administrative tasks.

Automating billing and insurance claims with AI, for example, speeds up the reimbursement process. Natural language processing (NLP), a subfield of AI, can improve clinician notes by turning messy handwriting or even spoken notes into refined documentation.

Applications and Benefits of AI in Health Informatics

Now you understand how AI intersects broadly with health informatics. Next, let’s look at specific applications of AI in the field—and how AI is already beneficial by improving accuracy and efficiency.

Diagnostics and Imaging

Deep learning, a specific type of ML, is particularly effective in processing MRIs, CT scans, and other forms of medical imaging. Especially with labor shortages and rising demands of clinicians, AI systems ensure that no stone goes unturned in the diagnostic process.

By bolstering human intelligence with AI, radiologists can catch abnormalities that they might’ve overlooked otherwise. These tools don’t replace clinicians; instead, they offer clinical decision support in real time. In fact, getting a second opinion from AI may help save a life.

Drug Discovery and Development

AI is also making a huge impact in the pharmaceutical industry, which ties in with many health informatics roles. In the early drug discovery and development stages, AI can assist with design, chemical synthesis, screening, repurposing, and manufacturing. A paper published in Drug Discovery Today outlined many potential uses—such as identifying the therapeutic target for a drug and predicting the physiochemical properties of a drug.

While artificial intelligence can improve how medicine is developed, it can also make the clinical trial process more efficient. For example, open-source AI tools that utilize machine learning can predict a drug’s toxicity levels. If pharmaceutical professionals can better predict whether a drug will pass or fail clinical trials due to toxicity, they can significantly cut down on the costs of repeated trials.

Virtual Health Assistants and Chatbots

If you’ve ever scheduled a doctor’s appointment or asked a chatbot a question about your insurance plan, then you’ve already seen AI in action! These common AI assistants are a powerful tool for patient engagement. While health care chatbots provide 24/7 assistance to patients, they’re also helpful on the provider side.

Say that your staff is constantly answering questions via email or phone—all with varying levels of urgency. Virtual health assistants reduce this burden by answering simple questions or automating tasks like booking or canceling appointments. When AI handles these inquiries, it lets staff members focus their attention on more complicated or immediate calls.

The Future of AI in Health Informatics

AI has already proven itself capable of numerous uses in health informatics. When it comes to the future of AI in health care, the sky is the limit. In fact, we’re already seeing its early benefits and future potential.

Many health care professionals expect AI to factor into the future of telehealth. If you meet with a mental health professional electronically, such as a therapist or psychiatrist, then you’re familiar with telehealth. AI may be used to match patients with available telehealth clinicians, particularly in crises situations where the intake process can be expedited.

Big developments may also come in the form of wearable AI technologies. For example, glucose monitoring systems already use AI to predict fluctuations in blood sugar levels, which allows doctors to preemptively intervene. Wearable tools currently in development also include AI-powered camera systems, which detect clinician errors in real time, and AI photoplethysmography wearables, which measure blood volume changes in microvascular tissue.

How to Stay Ahead in the World of Health Informatics

If you want to stay ahead in the world of health informatics, you have options. A Bachelor of Science in Health Informatics will equip you with skills in health IT, business, and data analytics. If you want to hone these skills further, you can also pursue a Master’s in Health Informatics. A graduate degree builds upon your foundational education in health informatics while offering new insights into project management and professional success.

Best of all, at the University of Cincinnati, both of these programs can be completed entirely online. This makes them the perfect option for a working professional who wants to transition careers or move into a leadership role.

Ready to Upskill in Health Informatics and AI? Reach Out to UC Today

When you embark on a career in health informatics, you want to have the skills to stand out. At the University of Cincinnati, our online Graduate Certificate in Health Data Science and Artificial Intelligence prepares you to do just that!

Through coursework that highlights both AI’s capabilities and their application to the health care field, you’ll develop valuable skills. You won’t just learn about AI—you’ll learn how to use it in a wide range of contexts. Once you know how to harness the power of AI in your career, you’ll be able to help patients like never before.

So what are you waiting for? Dive into the world of AI and experience first-hand how it’s transforming the world of health informatics. You can take the first step today by contacting an Enrollment Services Advisor—your guide to becoming a Bearcat!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How can you use AI in health informatics?

Broadly speaking, AI can be used in health informatics to reduce human error, increase early intervention, and automate routine tasks. These tools allow providers to focus on direct patient care rather than paperwork.

What is an example of artificial intelligence in health care?

Health care providers can utilize AI in their workflow for a variety of tasks. Some AI tools streamline appointment scheduling, patient intake, and lab result communications, whereas others analyze large quantities of medical data. Some AI tools even play a role in the diagnostic process, particularly in cases where early diagnosis is critical.

Which AI tools are used in health care?

AI tools like Keragon and IBM Watson Health are popular choices for administrative tasks and automated analysis of medical records. For diagnostic and imaging purposes, AI options include PathAI, Tempus, and Caption Health.