“Digital health technologies, including but not limited to artificial intelligence, can offer concrete solutions to inefficiency in the healthcare sector and save $125 billion annually on a global scale.”
Why do we need artificial intelligence in health? There are two different answers to this question: The first is individual-centered. In other words, the patient and physician sides are at its center. The second is organizationally centered. Here we mean health systems at the level of health provider institutions and even countries. We use AI in an organizational context, primarily for economic, social and environmental impacts, i.e. sustainability. Today, the annual volume of the global health market is at the level of 10 trillion dollars. This huge amount, which is almost fourteen times our country’s GDP, does not mean that every cent spent turns into benefit. In fact, health inefficiency is almost 40% globally. To give more specific examples, 20% of total health expenditures in Europe go to waste; In the USA, approximately one-third of medical expenses cannot provide you with better “health” and may even cause harm (1, 2). Approximately half of these losses are due to clinically or operationally correctable processes. Digital health technologies, including but not limited to artificial intelligence, can offer concrete solutions to this inefficiency and save $125 billion annually on a global scale (3). Starting from this point, digital health solutions have reached an annual volume of 150 billion dollars and are growing at 18% every year. Artificial intelligence systems, which currently constitute only a small part of these solutions, are predicted to generate approximately 8 billion dollars from healthcare this year (4). This figure was only $800 million in 2015. So, the market has grown tenfold in ten years.
*Artificial intelligence, in the context of this speech, describes the super-powerful data analysis ability offered by computers.
1] Cutler, D.M. “Where Are the Health Care Entrepreneurs? The Failure of Organizational Innovation in Health Care” The National Bureau of Economic Research. 2011.
[2] Karakaş, H.M., Biri Ş. “Use of Information Technologies in Providing Patient-Oriented Healthcare and Reducing Errors. Sur, H., Palteki, T., Yazıcı, G. (eds.). Patient Safety Istanbul: Palme, 2019 (ISBN: 978-6052822968)
[3] Global health expenditure: 7.5 T USD/year; Inefficiency: 10% = 731 B USD/year; Clinical/operational inefficiencies: 59% = $429 B/yr: Expected improvement: 25% = $100 B/yr. Source: Karakaş, H.M. “Big Data, Industrial Internet and Applications in Healthcare”. In: Ertin H, Sandıkçı T. ISAR 2020. Ss. 105-129
[4] Frost & Sullivan
