Dive Brief:
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WellCare Health Plans is developing two artificial intelligence (AI) systems, one patient-facing and one clinician-facing, intended to deliver actionable medical information to providers and patients, The Wall Street Journal reported.
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Care Plan, the patient-facing system, has has been made available to beneficiaries in Florida, Georgia and New York as part of the MyWellCare mobile app and should be available nationwide by the end of the year.
- Both systems work by analyzing WellCare records and data input by users to identify when patients are at risk for certain conditions and to recommend screening exams or preventive measures.
Dive Insight:
AI is gaining attention throughout healthcare. As potential for AI to improve outcomes continues to grow, there could be a lot of money up for grabs. But is the fanfare warranted?
The market for AI in healthcare was around $600 million in 2014, but that is expected to grow to $6 billion by 2021, according to an estimate from Frost & Sullivan. Companies developing AI technology are also betting that healthcare will provide much of the demand for tools they develop. IBM announced last fall that it would invest $200 million in its Watson Internet of Things headquarters.
The Watson AI system developed by IBM is probably the most familiar to both healthcare industry insiders and everyday consumers. In just the first few months of 2017, IBM has announced several new partnership that aim to improve various aspects of healthcare.
A partnership with MedyMatch intends to make more accessible an AI tool that aids in the detection of intracranial bleeding. Another partnership with Illumina hopes to simplify interpretation of genomic data to improve precision medicine for cancer patients. IBM also unveiled a suite of cloud-based tools that could improve data collection and inform health management strategies.
AI has the potential to transform healthcare by scraping information from patient records and a growing body of evidence-based research to aid treatment decisions, according to Hal Andrews, president of healthcare at software company Digital Reasoning, told Healthcare Dive. “Humans can’t keep up with it,” Andrews said of the amount of information available.
On the other hand, observers may want to temper expectations. Healthcare professionals are familiar with unfulfilled promises before. Longstanding challenges presented by interoperability and regulation limit the potential of technology. “As long as the same decades-old issues continue to plague healthcare... I’ll be pessimistic of any claims of disruption,” Derek Spearing, senior manager at Top Tier Consulting told Healthcare Dive.