Predictive Analytics and AI in Healthcare: Using AI to Predict Patient Outcomes

Predictive Analytics and AI in Healthcare: Using AI to Predict Patient Outcomes

by Ree

Health organizations use predictive analytics and AI to make better decisions, create personalized treatment plans, and improve patient outcomes. Let’s discuss their impact on the healthcare industry.

Contents

Understanding Predictive Analytics with AI in Healthcare

Predictive analytics uses statistical methods to analyze medical data. It also finds patterns and trends that can predict what might happen next with an individual patient. But what part does AI play here?

Definition of predictive analytics and its relationship to AI

Predictive analytics involves using statistical methods and algorithms to analyze medical data and make predictions about future patient outcomes or healthcare trends. It’s like having a crystal ball that relies on patient data instead of magic. 

AI enhances predictive analytics in healthcare by automating the analysis process and improving the accuracy of predictions through machine learning and other advanced techniques (Petrova, 2024).

Predictive analytics systems in healthcare

Predictive analytics systems are made up of several key components:

  • Data Collection: Gathering relevant data from various sources like electronic health records (EHRs) and medical devices.
  • Data Preprocessing: Cleaning and organizing medical data to ensure it’s usable.
  • Model Building: Creating statistical models that can analyze the data.
  • Model Validation: Testing the models to ensure they make accurate predictions about patient outcomes.
  • Deployment: Using the models to make predictions in real-world healthcare scenarios.

How AI enhances predictive capabilities

AI takes predictive analytics to the next level. Traditional predictive models might struggle with large datasets or complex patterns, but AI can handle these with ease. 

Examples:

  • Netflix uses AI to predict what shows or movies you might like based on your viewing history, dramatically improving user experience. 
  • IBM Watson Health uses AI to analyze patient data and medical literature to help clinicians make treatment decisions, which enhances patient care.

How machine learning can improve predictions

Machine learning (ML), a subset of AI, is crucial in predictive analytics. It involves training algorithms on historical patient data so they can learn to make predictions on new data. 

Over time, these algorithms improve as they are exposed to more data, making them more accurate and efficient when predicting patient outcomes. This continuous learning process is what makes ML so powerful in predictive analytics. 

Some examples:

  • Amazon uses ML to predict product demand, ensuring that they stock the right products at the right time. 
  • Google Health uses ML to predict patient deterioration in hospitals, allowing for early intervention and improved patient care.
  • A study in Nature conducted by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the DeepMind team at Google used AI to accurately predict acute kidney injuries up to 48 hours before diagnosis (Suleyman & King, 2019).

Predictive analytics and AI are not just theoretical concepts; they have real-world applications across various industries. Now that we know the basics, let’s see how healthcare providers use these tools in practice.

Real-World Applications of Predictive Analytics and AI

Behavior prediction and resource allocation

Healthcare providers use predictive analytics to understand patient behavior. By analyzing past medical history and treatment adherence, hospitals can predict which patients are likely to miss appointments or not follow their treatment plans. This helps personalize care, improve patient engagement, and allocate resources. 

A couple of examples:

  • Cleveland Clinic uses predictive analytics to identify patients at high risk of readmission, allowing for targeted interventions. 
  • Gundersen Health Systems increased the number of staffed rooms used by 9% using predictive analytics with AI (Becker’s Hospital Review).

Healthcare resource optimization and demand forecasting

Nurse showing notes to doctor near whiteboard

Predictive analytics helps healthcare organizations optimize their resources by forecasting patient demand. 

Hospitals can predict future patient volumes and adjust staffing levels by analyzing admission data and seasonal trends. This reduces costs and ensures that healthcare services are available when patients need them. 

For example, Johns Hopkins Hospital uses predictive analytics to forecast patient admission rates and optimize resource allocation (Chan & Scheulen, 2017).

Treatment outcome prediction and optimization

By analyzing patient data and treatment histories, clinicians can identify:

  • which treatments are likely to be most effective for each patient
  • which patients are at risk of certain diseases 
  • take preventive measures based on what they find

This process improves patient outcomes and reduces healthcare costs. A few examples:

  • Both Mayo Clinic and IBM Watson Health use AI and predictive analytics to diagnose and personalize treatment plans for cancer patients more effectively (IBM, 2019).
  • Hoag Hospital uses an AI-powered platform to predict which patients are at risk of developing sepsis. The result was a 41% decrease in sepsis-related mortality rates (Health Catalyst, n.d.).
  • The City of Hope Medical Center partnered with Syapse to develop a predictive analytics platform with AI to detect patients who are at risk of getting cancer or have a high risk of cancer recurrence (City of Hope, 2020).

Predictive maintenance of medical equipment

Closeup of vitals in the OR

Healthcare facilities use predictive analytics to predict when medical equipment is likely to fail and schedule maintenance as needed. This helps prevent unexpected breakdowns, reduces downtime, and ensures continuous patient care. 

For example, GE Healthcare uses predictive analytics to monitor medical imaging equipment and predict maintenance needs (Business Wire, 2024).

Implementing predictive analytics and AI offers numerous benefits for businesses. We’ll discuss some of the key advantages next.

Benefits of Implementing Predictive Analytics and AI

The ways healthcare organizations use predictive analytics and AI offer several advantages.

Early disease detection and prevention

Healthcare organizations can use predictive analytics to detect diseases early, implement preventive measures, and manage patient risks. This helps in reducing the burden of chronic diseases and improving population health. 

A couple of examples:

Improved decision-making 

Three doctors talking in a hallway

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Predictive analytics can uncover hidden patterns and trends in patient data, revealing new insights for clinical decision-making. By identifying these patterns early, healthcare providers can make more informed decisions about patient care. 

For example, Stanford Health Care uses AI-powered predictive analytics to assist doctors in diagnosing complex conditions and recommending personalized treatment plans.

Cost reduction and operational efficiency

By predicting future patient needs and health trends, healthcare organizations can optimize their operations and reduce costs. For example, forecasting patient admissions helps hospitals manage their staffing more efficiently, reducing overtime costs and improving care quality. 

A couple more examples:

  • Kaiser Permanente uses predictive analytics to optimize its supply chain, reducing waste and saving millions in healthcare costs (Pritchard, n.d.).
  • UCI Medical Center has implemented predictive analytics with AI to analyze patient information, including admission rates, length of stay, and diagnosis, to predict future patient demand and ensure sufficient hospital resources (University of California, Irvine, 2021).

In addition, predictive analytics enhanced with AI can help prevent fraudulent insurance claims. Insurance companies can train ML algorithms to determine bad intent at the outset. This could potentially save billions of dollars (NHCAA, n.d.).

Better patient experience and satisfaction

Doctor and patient hands on desk

By understanding future health trends and patterns, health facilities can implement preventive measures and improve patient outcomes. For instance, Intermountain Health uses predictive analytics to reduce hospital-acquired infections, significantly improving patient safety. 

While implementing predictive analytics and AI offers many benefits to health providers and patients, they also come with their own set of considerations to keep in mind.

Challenges and Considerations

Data quality and integration issues

For predictive analytics to be effective, the data used must be accurate and reliable. Poor quality data can lead to inaccurate predictions. In addition, integrating data from different sources can be challenging and time-consuming. 

Privacy and ethical concerns

Hand pulling a folder from chart in dr office

Using predictive analytics in healthcare involves collecting and analyzing large amounts of sensitive patient data, which can raise privacy and ethical concerns. Healthcare organizations must ensure they handle patient data responsibly and comply with regulations like HIPAA. 

Attracting skilled talent 

Implementing predictive analytics requires specialized skills and expertise. Finding and retaining talent with the necessary healthcare analytic skills can be challenging. Many organizations struggle to find data scientists and analysts who can build and maintain predictive models.

Choosing the right tools and technologies

There are numerous predictive analytics tools and technologies available, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Choosing the right tools can be daunting, especially given the rapid pace of technological advancement in this field.

Overcoming resistance to change within health organizations

Nurse in hallway looking worried

Implementing predictive analytics often involves changing existing processes and systems, which can face resistance from staff. Organizations must manage this change effectively to ensure a smooth transition and adoption of new analytics technologies. 

The field of predictive analytics and AI is constantly evolving. Here are some future trends to watch out for.

Advancements in natural language processing

Natural language processing (NLP) is a branch of AI that deals with understanding and generating human language. Advancements in NLP enable more accurate and efficient analysis of text data, opening up new possibilities for predictive analytics in healthcare:

  • Wearable devices can use edge computing to process patient data in real time and alert healthcare providers to potential emergencies.
  • Chatbots powered by NLP can provide real-time customer support and predict user needs based on their queries.

eXplainable AI for clearer decision-making

Nurse showing notes to dr

eXplainable AI (XAI) aims to make AI models more clear and easy to understand. This can help health providers trust and adopt AI technologies more readily, as they can see how patient care decisions are made. 

For example, healthcare providers can use explainable AI to understand how predictive models diagnose diseases and recommend treatments. This is critical in healthcare, where the rationale behind some decisions may have life-or-death consequences.

Integration with IoT devices

The integration of predictive analytics with Internet of Things (IoT) devices enables healthcare providers to collect and analyze data from a wide range of sources, using wearable technology like smartwatches and fitness trackers (Li et al., 2019). 

This will provide more comprehensive insights into patient health and improve decision-making. For example, smart medical devices could use predictive analytics to monitor patient health in real-time and predict potential complications. 

Democratization of AI and predictive tools

As AI and predictive analytics tools become more user-friendly and accessible, more health organizations can take advantage of these technologies. This will drive innovation and improve patient care across the healthcare industry, from small clinics to large hospital systems.

Conclusion

Predictive analytics and AI are changing the healthcare industry, offering powerful tools to forecast outcomes and make data-driven decisions. By understanding the progress and potential of predictive analytics and AI, along with real-world applications, benefits, challenges, and future trends, health organizations can be better positioned to navigate uncertainties, seize opportunities, and stay ahead of the curve.

References

A tech-based culture shift: How Gundersen achieved prime OR utilization with predictive analytics. Becker’s Hospital Review. Retrieved from https://go.beckershospitalreview.com/hit/a-tech-based-culture-shift-how-gundersen-achieved-prime-or-utilization-with-predictive-analytics

Business Wire. (2024). GE Healthcare Increases Access to Precision Care Tools, Encouraging the Continued Adoption and Practice of More Personalized Medicine Around the World. Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved from https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ge-healthcare-increases-access-precision-164000903.html

Chan, C., & Scheulen, J. (2017). Administrators Leverage Predictive Analytics to Manage Capacity, Streamline Decision-making. ED Management;29(2):19-23.

City of Hope. (2020). City of Hope and Syapse partner to provide precision medicine to cancer patients. Retrieved from https://www.cityofhope.org/city-of-hope-and-syapse-partner-to-provide-precision-medicine-to-cancer-patients

ConsultQD. (2019). Model Reliably Predicts Risk of Hospital Readmissions. Cleveland Clinic. Retrieved from https://consultqd.clevelandclinic.org/model-reliably-predicts-risk-of-hospital-readmissions

Health Catalyst. (n.d.). Predictive sepsis surveillance at Hoag Hospital. Retrieved from  https://www.healthcatalyst.com/success_stories/predictive-sepsis-surveillance-at-hoag-hospital

IBM. (2019). IBM and Mayo Clinic launch Watson-powered clinical trial matching. Retrieved from https://www.ibm.com/blogs/watson-health/ibm-and-mayo-clinic-launch-watson-powered-clinical-trial-matching

Intermountain Health. (2023). Predictive Analytics Important at Intermountain Healthcare.  Retrieved from https://intermountainhealthcare.org/blogs/predictive-analytics-important-at-intermountain-healthcare

Pritchard, J. (n.d.) Kaiser Permanente: Building a Resilient Supply Chain. The Journal of Healthcare Contracting. Retrieved from https://www.jhconline.com/kaiser-permanente-building-a-resilient-supply-chain.html

Li, J., Xie, B., & Sadek, I. (2019). Wearable technology and their implications in healthcare delivery. Health Systems, 8(1), 9-18.

Mount Sinai. (n.d.). From Bench to Bedside: Predicting Who Will Develop Chronic Kidney Disease. Retrieved from https://reports.mountsinai.org/article/neph2022-_1_renalytix-goes-into-clinical-use

Petrova, B. (2024). Predictive Analytics in Healthcare. Reveal. Retrieved from https://www.revealbi.io/blog/predictive-analytics-in-healthcare

Slabodkin, G. (2017). Penn leverages machine learning to identify severe sepsis early. HealthData Management. Retrieved from https://www.healthdatamanagement.com/articles/penn-leverages-machine-learning-to-identify-severe-sepsis-early

Stanford Medicine Catalyst. (n.d.) Catalyst supports innovations across all verticals, spanning the healthcare spectrum. Retrieved from https://smcatalyst.stanford.edu/catalyst-verticals/

Suleyman, M. & King, D. (2019). Using AI to give doctors a 48-hour head start on life-threatening illness. Google DeepMind. Retrieved from https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/using-ai-to-give-doctors-a-48-hour-head-start-on-life-threatening-illness/

The Challenge of Health Care Fraud. (n.d.) National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association (NHCAA). Retrieved from https://www.nhcaa.org/tools-insights/about-health-care-fraud/the-challenge-of-health-care-fraud/

University of California, Irvine. (2021). AI is the future of healthcare. Retrieved from https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20211005.299901/full

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