Move over, doctors. Artificial intelligence has it from here…kind of.
University College London Hospital (UCLH) is set to begin a trial of AI in its A&E department, which just experienced its longest average wait times in eight years. In March, only 84 percent of patients arriving in A&E were seen within the first four hours. This is well below the U.K.’s government mandated four-hour average for health facilities.
The system will be used to assess the most urgent cases and fast-track them for treatment. The goal is to make services in the emergency department “safer and more streamlined.”
AI technology can diagnose cancer. It can also prioritize patients better than sleep-deprived, stressed-out doctors can. UCLH, in partnership with the Alan Turing Institute, is pioneering the use of AI in the ER. Professor Bryan Williams, the head of the program, says AI can instantly assess a patient who is breathless and needs an X-ray.
Obviously, the fear of AI replacing doctors — and replacing humans — is a common one. A 2016 YouGov survey found that more than 60 percent of people thought robots would replace people leading to fewer jobs and opportunities in the next 10 years. It’s important to note that UCLH’s AI implementation is designed to complement rather than replace doctors.
Some doctor and nurse actions will be rendered redundant, but the important thing is that doctors and nurses be able to do what they do best, and have the time to do it. It’s easy to see how some triage-related tasks, for instance, could be taken over by AI in the future, allowing doctors and nurses to spend more time with patients. The optimistic view of AI in the ER and throughout healthcare is that it will lead to better service and better outcomes.
Read more about artificial intelligence in the ER here.
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