Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: A Health Revolution in Patient Care

In the ever-changing healthcare landscape, technology has become a powerful ally, significantly altering the way medical services are delivered and experienced. Artificial intelligence (AI) is at the forefront of this digital revolution, serving as a profound technological application in the healthcare industry. The adoption of AI has not only improved processes but has also enhanced the accuracy and quality of patient care, heralding a new era of innovation in healthcare.

Pinnacle of Advancement: AI in Healthcare

AI, often referred to as "machine intelligence," consists of algorithms and computational power that mimic human intelligence. In healthcare, this intelligence is harnessed to analyze vast amounts of medical data, allowing for the extraction of meaningful insights and aiding in decision-making processes. The impact of AI in healthcare spans from diagnostics to treatment planning and streamlining administrative tasks, significantly contributing to the development of healthcare quality and efficiency.

Emirates Health Services: Leading AI Advancement in Healthcare

The Emirates Health Services (EHS) recognizes the vital role that AI plays in advancing healthcare, committing to delivering the highest standards of health service. EHS has embraced AI technologies while ensuring their integration with its infrastructure and medical services. This commitment stems from its vision to enhance patient experiences, quality, and safety, improve operational efficiency, and drive innovations for leading accomplishments in healthcare provision.

AI Projects at Emirates Health Services (EHS): Transforming Healthcare Step by Step

    Early Detection of Breast Cancer: Utilizing AI algorithms in mammography, EHS is revolutionizing early detection of breast cancer, significantly improving chances for successful treatment and outcomes for patients.

    AI-Powered Heart Rate Monitoring: EHS employs AI in heart rate monitoring devices to assess cardiac electrical data. Smart algorithms trigger audible warnings when a patient approaches a critical stage, allowing for timely medical intervention and saving lives.

    Diabetes Treatment Using AI: EHS is advancing diabetes care through AI-powered insulin pumps like the MinimedTM 780G system, which mimics the natural pancreas, maintaining a precise balance between insulin and glucose. AI algorithms help prevent low blood sugar levels, enhancing quality of life and patient safety.

    Dementia Diagnosis Using AI: EHS uses computer-based cognitive assessment technology powered by AI to detect early signs of cognitive decline and dementia. Early detection allows for timely medical interventions, improving treatment outcomes and reducing the impact of dementia on patients’ lives.

    Voice Recognition System: EHS has adopted an AI-powered voice recognition system, enabling doctors to input health data using voice commands. This innovation streamlines documentation processes, saving time and allowing doctors to focus on providing exceptional patient care.

    Disease Prediction Using AI: By leveraging data analysis and pattern recognition through the EHS Intelligence platform, AI algorithms assist in identifying diseases in their early stages or predicting outbreak risks. This leads to timely interventions and improved patient outcomes. Early detection, such as for diabetes, plays a crucial role in successful treatment and alleviating the burden on healthcare.

    AI-Powered Hospital Admission Prediction: AI algorithms in the organization provide risk predictions for admissions, allowing doctors to focus on timely interventions. From predicting acute heart failure in patients to determining admission scores in emergency units, algorithms on the EHS Intelligence platform aim to reduce the burden on patients and the federal health system by predicting hospital admissions for these patients, facilitating timely intervention.

    AI-Powered Mortality Risk Prediction: EHS has developed a machine learning model to predict deaths of COVID-19 patients in critical care using important parameters such as demographics, comorbidities, medications, lab results, and clinical traits. The analytics explored correlation and causation, along with visual insights to understand patterns regarding the group of patients who faced outcomes leading to death compared to those who survived COVID-19 in ICUs. The AI algorithm displayed very high accuracy and can easily guide ICU doctors to intervene timely.

    Promoting Sustainability through Transition to Digital Visits Using AI: In alignment with the UAE's 2030 strategy aiming for net-zero carbon emissions, EHS utilized the EHS Intelligence platform, developed with powerful AI algorithms, to calculate patients' carbon footprint. The organization employed AI to proactively identify potential digital visits and assist in converting patient visits to phone consultations. This step is a commendable and practical approach that aligns with sustainability goals and leads to improved patient outcomes. As patients adopt sustainable innovations, we have tremendous potential and opportunity to enhance access to high-quality healthcare sustainably using AI.

    Analyzing Customer Feedback Using AI: EHS implemented an initiative to analyze patient feedback using AI techniques and natural language processing to improve patient engagement and experience. The EHS Intelligence platform was used to develop a new sentiment analysis program through analyzing patient comments and opinions on social media.

    No-Show Prediction Using AI Algorithms: Using historical primary care data trends, EHS created an AI-based business model to predict appointment no-shows by utilizing patient and appointment details from the organization's extensive data warehouse, processing them through various machine learning models to yield meaningful results. It identifies factors and indicators that create no-show risks and classifies each scheduled appointment into low to high no-show predictions. The no-show model features 16 attributes and showcases high accuracy, guiding primary healthcare managers in managing appointments accordingly.

AI at Emirates Health Services: A Revolution in Healthcare and Enhancing Patient Services

The adoption of AI technologies at Emirates Health Services (EHS) is a testament to our steadfast commitment to evolving innovation and patient-centered care. By integrating AI across various vital areas, its impact on our services and patients has been profound. The early detection of breast cancer through AI, implemented in four of our hospitals, successfully diagnosed 532 patients between 2019 and 2022. Notably, AI diabetes treatment significantly reduced the diagnosis and treatment time for diabetic patients to just two days.

Additionally, the voice recognition system has been applied in the targeted 82 hospitals and medical centers, with 1,800 doctors trained and 1,200 active users of the system, representing 70% of the total working doctors in the organization across various specialties, tasks, and medical and scientific backgrounds. This significantly enhanced documentation efficiency and increased the volume of documentation inputs to medical records by 83%. The clinical documentation rate using voice recognition technology and AI reached 97.6% at Abdullah bin Imran Hospital and 90% at Diba Hospital.

Furthermore, 88% of doctors expressed satisfaction with the new clinical documentation procedures, boosting the quality of medical documentation by 43%, which, in turn, increased the doctors’ satisfaction with the documentation process to 78% within one year of implementation. The voice recognition system also halved the average patient review time with doctors, reducing it from 30 minutes to just 15 minutes.

The system settings were calibrated and customized for a group of 168 doctors to suit their specialties, resulting in a decrease in error rate from 36% to 7.35% in 2023. The project received the "3M" International Award in the category of "Optimal Usage Rate by Physicians," which is shared by all institutions using the technology, and awarded to the institution that achieved an adoption/use rate of more than 50% in the first year of implementation (the institution achieved a 87% adoption/use rate at the time of the award).

All of this is thanks to the transformative power of AI. These tangible improvements affirm our commitment to enhancing patient experiences and redefining healthcare standards through the adoption of these modern technologies.

EHS Intelligence Platform (PaCE)

Emirates Health Services has taken a significant step by launching the EHS Intelligence platform that connects all data and AI-based projects to a centralized platform, enabling timely analysis and producing meaningful insights for swift and effective decision-making at both clinical and administrative levels within the organization. An analytical application connects to data stations, allowing quick access to patient statistics and operational facts. This intelligent software is designed to serve as a catalyst for data-driven healthcare transformation, helping users leverage different machine learning models and insights specifically developed to address core business challenges and provide immediate access to information and knowledge.