Healthcare leaders in Apac are turning to AI and data integration to improve quality and timeliness of patient care, according to the latest Philips Future Health Index.

The ninth edition of the report, which surveyed nearly 3000 healthcare leaders in 14 countries, including Australia, Indonesia and Singapore, shows that healthcare leaders are focusing on improving operational efficiencies through workflow prioritisation, data integration and AI-enabled innovation to improve patient care impacted by workforce shortages, financial challenges and growing demand.

It found that 93% reported they experienced at least one data integration problem but recognised the potential of bringing data from different sources together to improve efficiency and care.

AI is being increasingly used for clinical decision support, with 62% planning to invest in generative AI within the next three years, higher than the global 56%.

“While long wait times and staff shortages are making it difficult for people to get the care they need, when they need, we are also observing our healthcare leaders taking bold and thoughtful changes to deliver better patient care for more people,” said Mark Burby, vice president at Philips. “They are determined to overcome data integration challenges to fully uncover its utmost potential and are excited to embrace the next level of AI implementation for critical decision making and improved efficiencies.”

Seven out of ten healthcare leaders in Apac are concerned about staff shortages resulting in delays in care for patients. Furthermore, 92% highlighted that financial challenges were impacting their organisation’s ability to provide timely, high quality-care, with 59% of them improving operational efficiency at their organisation as a financial strategy.

To deal with the high volume of patients without compromising on quality, workflow prioritisation is seen as the biggest opportunity for automation to improve productivity and ease staff shortages worldwide. In Apac, close to half (45%) have already implemented workflow optimisation.

Healthcare leaders in Apac see a wide range of opportunities to improve patient care by bringing data from different sources together in a meaningful way, helping them build a cohesive patient story. They believe the benefits from having data-driven insights include optimising treatment plans and care pathways (36%), identifying evidence-based best practices (36%), forecasting and managing patient demand (36%), predicting and reducing adverse patient events (33%), reducing hospital readmissions (33%), and reducing diagnostic and elective care procedure waiting lists (31%).

However, 93% reported they experienced at least one data integration problem. These affect their ability to provide timely and high-quality care, and include an increased risk of errors, reduced patient safety and/or quality of care (36%), limited coordination between care providers and departments (33%), increased operational costs due to inefficiencies (32%), spending time accessing and integrating data resulting in less time caring for patients (31%), and missed opportunities for preventive care or early intervention (31%).

To uncover the benefits of data integration, 67% of healthcare leaders in Apac highlighted the importance of quality data. They identified improved accuracy of data (36%), improved data security and privacy (34%), full patient access to their own health data (34%), and improved interoperability between platforms and healthcare settings (31%) as areas to be changed when handling data.

In Apac, successful adoption in AI is observed with healthcare leaders increasingly embracing AI for clinical decision support. The findings show how they have implemented and are planning to implement AI for clinical decision support in the next three years across different areas of care including preventive care (91%), medication management (90%), in-hospital patient monitoring (89%), treatment planning (89%), remote patient monitoring (87%), clinical command centres (83%), radiology (79%) and pathology (79%).

Looking towards the next step in AI, generative AI adoption is taking off in Apac with healthcare leaders recognising the benefits of AI algorithms that can be used to produce content such as text, images or data, in response to inputted prompts. This could benefit patient care by unlocking efficiencies and insights from patient data.

In Apac, 36% of healthcare leaders are investing in generative AI technologies, with 62% planning to invest in these technologies in the next three years. Overall, Apac’s interest in generative AI is ahead of global healthcare leaders investing (29%) and planning to invest in the next three years (56%).

While there is widespread excitement about the possibilities of AI in healthcare, 95% of healthcare leaders in Apac are concerned about data bias in AI applications widening disparities in health outcomes. There is a shared recognition that AI needs to be implemented in a responsible way to avoid unintended consequences. Making AI more transparent and interpretable for healthcare professionals (45%), ensuring staff diversity in data and AI (43%), continuous training and education in AI (40%), and implementing policies for the ethical use of data and AI (39%) were listed as strategies to mitigate the risk of data bias. This can only be achieved through cross-sector collaboration and coalition-building.

“The future of delivering better care for more people is attainable through seamless integration of data and smart application of AI in clinical care to improve workflow and productivity for healthcare providers,” said Burby. “At Philips, we are leveraging AI and informatics capabilities and harnessing the power of partnerships to innovate across imaging, interventional and monitoring to stay ahead of these needs.”

Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips (www.philips.com) specialises in diagnostic imaging, ultrasound, image-guided therapy, monitoring and enterprise informatics, as well as in personal health. Philips generated 2023 sales of €18.2bn and employs approximately 69,700 people with sales and services in more than 100 countries.

The report can be downloaded at www.philips.com/c-dam/assets/corporate/global/future-health-index/report-pages/experience-transformation/2024/sg/philips-future-health-index-2024-report-better-care-for-more-people-sg.pdf.