Recent data shows that 60% of South African workers regularly use generative AI tools, ahead of those in several Western countries. Graphic: John McCann/M&G
There’s been much talk about the national health insurance (NHI) bill, which was submitted to parliament in 2019. The NHI is intended to create a pool of private and public healthcare funding and ensure that all South Africans have access to quality, affordable personal healthcare based on their needs, despite their socioeconomic level.
However, concerns are that the state will be burdened with costs due to the NHI, which may lead to taxpayers having to pay for it. Before implementing an ambitious project to achieve universal healthcare, some critics say existing public healthcare problems must be fixed first.
The concerns or arguments against NHI have highlighted enduring problems in the public healthcare system. Although healthcare challenges are a global issue that affect even the most developed nations, they are more severe in developing and under-developed countries.
Healthcare systems in Africa face several major challenges, including inefficiency, inequity and inadequate resource allocation. In South Africa, where about 80% of the population uses public healthcare and 20% uses private healthcare, the challenges have been compounded by a limited technology infrastructure. As the access to healthcare continues to grow, so does medical technology become more expensive.
To adapt to these challenges, healthcare institutions must constantly evolve. They must anticipate future needs and trends and be flexible enough to change course to be relevant and cost-effective.
Of course, this change might not happen overnight, because some of the older technology and techniques in the healthcare space are still reliable and standard. However, tried and tested gold-standard healthcare techniques can support new healthcare technology to strengthen primary healthcare services and diagnosis.
New technologies have undoubtedly given impetus to this, with various facets of health and healthcare systems worldwide advancing dramatically over the past century. These advances suggest that healthcare institutions will need even more advanced tools and technologies to enable people to enjoy longer, healthier and more productive lives.
These tools and technologies will also enable control of non-sustainable healthcare costs and improve access to care for people worldwide. Achieving health and well-being, and providing affordable healthcare services to all, is an aspiration embedded in the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Hospitals in the public and private sectors have had to adapt to the changing population dynamics they are dealing with. The Covid-19 pandemic, for instance, has forced public and private practitioners to look beyond the traditional model of reporting symptoms and performing tests at hospitals.
Patient-centric, digital-first and contactless strategies are becoming increasingly important, particularly for developing countries, as system gaps in healthcare delivery grow.
There’s no denying that Covid-19 accentuated existing challenges in the healthcare sector. However, it has also inspired innovation and the use of fourth industrial revolution (4IR) technologies that seek to transform the healthcare industry. 4IR has changed how institutions treat and diagnose patients and manage and organise health systems.
Some of the significant 4IR trends driving transformation in the healthcare sector include:
- The exponential growth of data and the development of new technologies for storing, processing, and analysing it;
- The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and its application to medical decision-making;
- The increasing use of 3D printing and other technologies in the development of new medical devices and treatments;
- The emergence of the “connected patient” who is increasingly involved in their health and wellness;
- The shift from a “sick care” to a “preventive care” model of health; and
- Greater awareness of data etiquette, privacy and ethics.
Each trend is leading to a fundamental change in how care is delivered and received.
In 2020, for instance, Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Kanagawa Prefecture launched an innovative healthcare platform that integrates wearable-device monitoring with online medication guidance and drug delivery. Through Care for One, patients, caregivers and their loved ones are connected and caregivers can monitor symptoms and share data between themselves and healthcare professionals to reduce the burden of hospital visits.
Takeda has also developed an app for monitoring symptoms with Apple Watch that allows for early detection of previously hard-to-detect symptoms. Telemedicine can be used by doctors to view patient data remotely, and patients can receive medication assistance via the internet and receive prescription drugs at home.
On the other hand, the UK-based AI company DeepMind, is using an AI called AlphaFold to predict the structure of almost every protein sequence catalogued by scientists — solving one of biology’s biggest challenges.
Developing an accurate protein structure prediction algorithm, combined with existing well-curated structures and sequences assembled by the experimental community, will allow DeepMind to keep pace with the genomics revolution. This can be achieved by developing a structural bioinformatics advancement algorithm.
Health science faculties like those at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) have strengthened their relevance and training by applying technology and innovation, within the context of 4IR, to their education and research initiatives.
When training future healthcare professionals in the faculty, there is a strong emphasis on teaching with technology such as virtual reality, augmented reality, gamification, simulation, wearable technology and 3D printing to better enable the academic programme.
Furthermore, training with mixed reality systems that are embedded in teaching has been shown to improve decision-making and skill coordination, and provide an engaged educational environment that allows students to practise procedures without any risk to human patients. It also prepares and fully equips students (the future workforce) to enter increasingly tech-heavy careers on graduation.
The explosion of data in healthcare is being taken advantage of, with big data analytics applications helping institutions make better and more informed decisions. A comprehensive and insightful diagnosis and treatment can be developed using big data, resulting in cost-effective high-quality care.
Healthcare providers and relevant stakeholders in the healthcare value chain can achieve this by synthesising and analysing big data. Even the case of “missing data” is partially addressed by data fusion (where missing data is generated through emulations).
At present, the healthcare ecosystem is increasingly incorporating AI, data fusion, and robotics into our everyday lives. Robots have become more collaborative with humans (these robots are referred to as “co-bots”) and they are easier to train as they move through tasks. In addition, their “brains” are becoming more intelligent as they are integrated with other AI capabilities.
We argue that AI will enhance human clinicians’ efforts to care for patients, not replace them. Healthcare professionals will not become obsolete. We believe that technology will assist healthcare professionals to become more efficient and become an integral part of assisting in medical processes.
Over the years, surgeons have been granted powers of sight and precision by surgical robots that allowed them to create more precise and minimally invasive incisions and to stitch wounds, et cetera. A variety of surgical procedures can be performed with the help of robots, including gynecologic surgery, prostate surgery and head and neck surgery.
However, at least for the moment, it’s good to note that human surgeons will still be making crucial decisions in these processes, not robots.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Mail & Guardian.