Findings released by Philips’ annual Future Health Index 2019.
Royal Philips released a new report which finds that Singapore’s healthcare professionals are not yet leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) to its full potential for treatment and diagnosis.
Philips’ annual Future Health Index (FHI) 2019 report titled ‘Transforming healthcare experiences: Exploring the impact of digital health technology on healthcare professionals and patients’ reveals that healthcare professionals in Singapore are using AI technology more for improving the accuracy and efficiency of administrative tasks such as staffing and patient scheduling (37%) than for diagnosis (28%), flagging patient anomalies (26%) and facilitating remote patient monitoring (25%).
According to the FHI 2019 report, it is emerging countries that are leading the way for AI use in diagnosis globally with nearly half (45%) of China’s healthcare professionals, and more than a third in Saudi Arabia (34%), using AI technology to improve the accuracy of their diagnoses.
For China, this follows significant investment in the field of AI, accounting for 60 per cent of the total global investment between 2013 and Q1 2018.
Elsewhere in the region, India is not far behind Singapore in its healthcare professionals’ use of AI for improving the accuracy of diagnosis (26%), but Australian healthcare professionals record the lowest use amongst the 15 countries in the study at just eight per cent.
The report also hints that apprehension amongst Singapore’s healthcare professionals may be one of the barriers to wider adoption, with one in five (20%) admitting that they fear their long-term job security is threatened by new advancements in healthcare technology, such as AI and telehealth.
The report reflects independent research, commissioned by Philips, of what is required to accelerate the shift from volume-based to value-based care in the global drive for sustainable healthcare systems. [APBN]