Perhaps the most important subset of public health is immunity health as it impacts every aspect of a society. When a particular community’s health is in jeopardy, it can impact life expectancy, work, financial well-being, and more.
If any country wishes to have a healthy population overall, it must prioritize a healthy community.
The U.S. News even shared a list of the healthiest communities as of 2024. The top three positions were occupied by the following –
- Falls Church City, Virginia
- Los Alamos County, New Mexico
- Douglas County, Colorado
While regular exercise, disease awareness, and lifestyle changes are great, a healthy community also requires technology these days. Yes, we live in a world where Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are bringing about a paradigm shift.
The same is true for healthcare, which is considerably influenced by the emerging era of AI. What is the scope of this technology in improving community health outcomes? Let’s look at different areas of AI interventions to understand this in detail.
Personalized Healthcare
Personalization is not something that needs to be limited to online shopping. It has permeated every area of modern life, even and especially healthcare.
The National Human Genome Research Institute states that personalized medicine involves using a patient’s genetic profile to guide decisions regarding disease diagnosis, treatment, and even prevention. When a doctor is equipped with thorough knowledge of a patient’s genetic profile, they can prescribe medications or therapy accurately.
This happens along the following lines –
- AI analyzes huge volumes of genomic data.
- During such analyses, patterns in disease-causing mutations are identified for more accurate treatments.
- Healthcare practitioners can then develop personalized treatment plans based on every patient’s unique genetic makeup.
In today’s day and age, even clinical nurses can prepare customized treatment plans. This is beneficial because usually, more nurses than doctors are found in the community health centers.
Some of them have worked their way up in this profession to have a more holistic understanding of patient profiles. Others have shifted to nursing by pursuing offline or online accelerated BSN nursing programs to serve across diverse settings.
This includes a desire to bring about a positive change in their respective communities. They are familiar with AI and natural language processing’s role in analyzing extensive patient data.
That helps them make sound medical judgments that treat every patient like a unique individual (as it should be). Earlier, the focus was on the community as a whole. AI is making it possible for healthcare teams to address the needs of all individuals that make up the whole community.
Early Disease Detection
Unless a disease is detected on time, it’s extremely challenging, and sometimes impossible, to reverse it. Early detection is what leads to timely interventions that may become a matter of life and death. Now, this has been complicated so far because healthcare professionals cannot play a game of conjecture.
For instance, Holy Family University states that it is important to approach nursing from an evidence-informed mindset. In a lot of cases, even if the healthcare team can save the patient, the latter may suffer from serious complications due to delayed disease detection.
Furthermore, the spread of contagious diseases cannot be reduced unless the root of the issue is identified early on. The pandemic has given the world a much-needed lesson on the value of early detection in curbing community spread.
Doctors and independently practicing nurses can leverage AI’s analysis and predictive capabilities. Manual guesswork may not always yield positive results but AI promises better accuracy rates because the technology predicts based on facts, not feelings. Let’s look at how this would appear –
- Medical images like MRI scans and X-rays can be analyzed to detect abnormalities like tumors.
- A patient’s genetic information can be analyzed to identify their risk of developing a particular disease.
- AI can even monitor a patient’s current condition for future diagnoses based on physiological signals like blood pressure and heart rate.
- Healthcare teams can run clinical data and medical records to identify anomalies that indicate disease.
- Even historical data can be analyzed to understand a patient’s likelihood of developing any disease down the line.
The more vulnerable groups are identified early on, the better the intervention can be. In some cases, preventative measures can be enough to minimize complications or prevent the spread of a disease. On the whole, communities will become healthier.
Remote Patient Monitoring
This is a type of telehealth service that uses digital devices to send and receive patient data. By continuously monitoring a patient’s health status from a distance, healthcare teams can detect even slight changes early on. This technology can be used for both acute and chronic conditions.
This is a vastly growing field in healthcare, valued at $39.54 billion in 2023. The market for this technology is expected to have a net worth of $77.90 billion by 2029, with a growth rate of 11.97%. Some of the main factors driving its growth include the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and an aging population.
Chronic diseases, in particular, tend to impact community health the most because they lower the quality of life for the long term. Proactive management of such diseases means patients feel empowered to play an active role in their health. Plus, there is room for early intervention through real-time data monitoring.
This technology goes even a step further by being accessible to those in rural communities who may find it difficult to receive regular in-person care. Now, let’s understand the role AI plays in remote patient monitoring. It does the following –
- Automatically analyzes huge volumes of data gathered from wearable devices and sensors
- Identifies certain patterns and anomalies that point toward specific health concerns
- Predicts future health complications, which enables healthcare providers to take preventative measures
- Notifies healthcare providers when a patient’s data lies beyond pre-set parameters
- Improves communication between patients and healthcare providers
- Allows medical teams to intervene and manage acute/chronic conditions without frequent in-person visits
The three areas we have discussed in this article will likely be the prime areas where AI will continue to intervene for better community health. The topmost priority is to enhance preventative care, which will help everyone within a community live long and strong.
Secondly, early disease detection may also contribute to improving each individual’s present quality of life and longevity. Finally, personalized care in each stage gives the reassurance that overall patient outcomes will improve. Perfect health for everyone at all times is ideal. However, humans do not possess the powers that the ‘immortal jellyfish’ has.
The aim, even while introducing AI to improve community health, is not to promote an unrealistic sense of health or life. However, it is perfectly possible to make a good standard of health and living accessible for all, one community at a time.
