In addition Expanding the applications of AI in healthcare – from clinical decision support to personalized medicine, hospitals in India are looking to test and adopt other types of emerging technologies this year.
Prashant Singh, CIO of Max Hospitals, and JP Dwivedi, CIO of Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute, discussed with Healthcare IT news some ongoing and emerging trends in healthcare IT in 2024.
For a, Robotic solutions for surgeries are expected to take up more space not only in large private chains, but also in smaller, public hospitals, as costs become more competitive with the advent of domestic alternatives.
A special form of AI, generative AIwhich grew in popularity last year, will continue to be in demand as hospitals seek more efficient tools to spend more time with their patients rather than administrative work.
While there is continued enthusiasm among hospitals to be considered “technology champions,” investing in new technologies is not without resistance.
Q: What trend in health technology in India do you see continuing in 2024? What about the new trends you can expect in the new year?
Dwivedi, Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute: Hospitals have always embraced medtech. In radiology there are digital X-rays, filmless images, high-precision CT, MRI and PET-CT. Hematology and biochemistry laboratories have analyzers that are now integrated into hospital information systems. Automation has also been implemented in microbiology and histopathology, while hospital investments in molecular laboratories and genome sequencing have increased in recent years. Now we are going for AI in both Radiology and Pathology; This trend will continue in 2024.
With the emergence of increasingly advanced modalities in radiology and the high demand for radiologists, it is imperative that we perform some kind of triage to separate absolutely normal images from those that require special attention from a professional. The use of AI/ML has already made that possible. We see a number of AI/ML products teaching the art of diagnosis alongside radiologists. After the software has learned the analysis of 100-200 normal images and 100-200 abnormal images, the software can intervene to sort these images and present only abnormal or potentially abnormal images to the radiologist. It saves a lot of time and effort. AI is also able to detect lumps that are not visible to the naked eye and suggest a closer look by a professional, thus avoiding a false negative. In Pathology, high-precision cameras enable the (preservation of) digital images instead of glass slides that are very difficult to handle, store and transport. These images can be digitally stored and analyzed by AI/ML-enabled products in the same way as radiological imaging.
In our institute, we have been working on digital pathology and the use of AI/ML-enabled technology (tools) in detecting prostate cancer. The results so far are very encouraging. We will soon expand it to detect many other types of cancer. The next area of technological intervention is its therapeutic use.
Robotic surgery has been around for more than a decade and has been proven to prevent blood loss, increase surgical accuracy and minimize hospital stays.. Until recently, such robots were very expensive and training was only possible in a limited number of places in the West. With the arrival of a home robot called SSI Mantra, costs have been significantly reduced. We will see more and more robotic solutions emerge in the near future.
Other examples of technological interventions include radiofrequency ablation (RFA), transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), transarterial radiation embolization (TARE) and High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU). All of these have been used effectively in oncology in recent years to improve precision and minimize intervention. We will witness the rapid expansion of these technologies in healthcare in 2024 and for many years to come.
Aside from a few major hospital chains, hospitals have traditionally been short-sighted about their use of IT until 2020, when COVID-19 hit. The onslaught of COVID-19 has changed the mindset of healthcare providers in many ways. For the first time, doctors preferred to provide advice remotely (telemedicine) and use computers to check patient records (EPD) rather than referring to paper files that could contain the deadly COVID-19 virus. This trend has continued since, as patients can book appointments and view their entire medical history using apps, while doctors find it convenient to view medical history on one screen rather than scrolling through several pages of a bulky paper record. to leaf through.
However, there are several challenges in EHR adoption, and these are faced by physicians around the world. Physicians find it helpful to retrieve the data, but are not comfortable entering the notes, orders, and prescriptions online. Hospitals are looking for reliable technologies that can help create medical records in the background while doctors communicate with and examine their patients. The next best technology could be handwriting or voice recognition technology. There are many promises, but nothing has been successfully proven except in a few specific areas, such as dictating radiology and pathology reports. This problem is more acute when a physician is making rounds and must remain in the department to enter progress notes, prescriptions, and diagnostic orders into the computer. The year 2024 will offer some promise in this direction.
As more and more patient data becomes available online, the risk of data security has increased dramatically. Cybersecurity technology is on the rise and will see a marked improvement in 2024 and beyond.
Singh, Max Hospitals: In my opinion, AI/gen AI will continue in 2024 in various healthcare applications, especially in case summarization and disease prediction.
Q: How receptive are hospitals in India to new technologies offered in the market? Do you see hospital budgets being aligned with testing/introducing new technologies in 2024?
Dwivedi, Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute: Hospitals have always been open to medical technologies, but are now opening up to IT as well. Governments encourage the use of IT in hospitals in various ways. Patients are also aware of the benefits of patient medical records, telemedicine, online appointments and many other facilities accessed with the help of IT, and they are able to distinguish technologically advanced hospitals from others. Technology also helps improve patient safety, reduce costs and improve the patient experience. Hospital budgets are being aligned not only with testing, but also with using these technologies effectively, and they want to establish themselves as technology champions rather than being labeled as laggards.
Singh, Max Hospitals: Corporate/larger hospitals are very receptive to newer technologies, but allocation of sufficient budget faces some resistance even now.
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Interviewees’ responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.