Challenges and strategies for wide-scale artificial intelligence (AI) deployment in healthcare practices: A perspective for healthcare organizations

Abstract

Healthcare organizations have realized that Artificial intelligence (AI) can provide a competitive edge through personalized patient experiences, improved patient outcomes, early diagnosis, augmented clinician capabilities, enhanced operational efficiencies, or improved medical service accessibility. However, deploying AI-driven tools in the healthcare ecosystem could be challenging. This paper categorizes AI applications in healthcare and comprehensively examines the challenges associated with deploying AI in medical practices at scale. As AI continues to make strides in healthcare, its integration presents various challenges, including production timelines, trust generation, privacy concerns, algorithmic biases, and data scarcity. The paper highlights that flawed business models and wrong workflows in healthcare practices cannot be rectified merely by deploying AI-driven tools. Healthcare organizations should re-evaluate root problems such as misaligned financial incentives (e.g., fee-for-service models), dysfunctional medical workflows (e.g., high rates of patient readmissions), poor care coordination between different providers, fragmented electronic health records systems, and inadequate patient education and engagement models in tandem with AI adoption. This study also explores the need for a cultural shift in viewing AI not as a threat but as an enabler that can enhance healthcare delivery and create new employment opportunities while emphasizing the importance of addressing underlying operational issues. The necessity of investments beyond finance is discussed, emphasizing the importance of human capital, continuous learning, and a supportive environment for AI integration. The paper also highlights the crucial role of clear regulations in building trust, ensuring safety, and guiding the ethical use of AI, calling for coherent frameworks addressing transparency, model accuracy, data quality control, liability, and ethics. Furthermore, this paper underscores the importance of advancing AI literacy within academia to prepare future healthcare professionals for an AI-driven landscape. Through careful navigation and proactive measures addressing these challenges, the healthcare community can harness AI's transformative power responsibly and effectively, revolutionizing healthcare delivery and patient care. The paper concludes with a vision and strategic suggestions for the future of healthcare with AI, emphasizing thoughtful, responsible, and innovative engagement as the pathway to realizing its full potential to unlock immense benefits for healthcare organizations, physicians, nurses, and patients while proactively mitigating risks.