The healthcare industry substantially impacts the environment, from increased greenhouse gas levels to waste generation. To reduce its effects, medical groups are turning to AI, though the fledgling technology has its issues with sustainability.
- What is AI in Healthcare Sustainability?
- How is AI Used in Healthcare Sustainability
- Benefits of AI in Healthcare Sustainability
- Challenges and Considerations: AI’s High Power Pricetag
What is AI in Healthcare Sustainability?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology that simulates how most humans think in AI computers: learning, reasoning, and problem-solving, to name a few. AI in healthcare sustainability applies that capacity to a medical organization’s goals for efficiency and greater environmental awareness.
How is AI Used in Healthcare Sustainability
Generally, AI is used in healthcare to collect and analyze massive amounts of data from various operations and processes, like patient records and medical staff schedules. The results will vary depending on the AI’s purpose. For example, AI used for Natural Language Processing will make it easier for providers to update their EMRs, while another aiding in hospice care will be involved in everything from determining a patient’s end-of-life treatment to processing hospital and insurance paperwork.
For healthcare sustainability, AI algorithms are looking for means enabling the medical organization to achieve current tasks like patient care with minimal to no harm to the environment or future generations. Three ways this is accomplished include:
Waste Management
Medical operations result in a lot of waste. For example, hospitals consume large amounts of electricity due to their 24/7 operation and power-hungry medical devices and equipment. This usage increases greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from power plants. Hospitals also release many chemical and biological hazards, which require special care to be handled and disposed of safely.
AI improves waste management in various ways. Predictive analytics is used to lower lighting and HVAC in rooms when not in use. Personal protection equipment and soiled surgical gowns that are used can be examined by computer vision to ensure they are sorted and disposed of correctly.
Resource Efficiency (Or Lack Of)
The healthcare industry is resource-intensive in terms of time and workforce. Processing patients at clinics and hospitals require power to operate the computers and office equipment. Medical staff and providers are also left waiting for the processing to be complete.
Healthcare uses AI to make such operations more efficient. Automating patient processing through AI-driven digital front door policies can reduce the power used by the admitting departments as well as wait time for patients. Providers will also see patients according to their specialties promptly and have time to examine them properly.
Remote Patient Monitoring and Telehealth
Today, most patients see providers at their offices. This is not only a hardship for some, like rural patients, but can also damage the environment due to emissions from the vehicles used in travel.
AI-driven telehealth can address both situations. Patients can communicate with their providers via devices like computers, tablets, and smartphones. In turn, providers and other medical staff can monitor patients thanks to remote patient monitoring (RPM). In-person visits are minimized, which lowers vehicle use and emissions.
Benefits of AI in Healthcare Sustainability
Many hospitals and other medical establishments have already enacted various “green” policies, ranging from using fewer paper products to installing hand dryers in restroom facilities. These policies, along with AI in healthcare sustainability, result in several benefits.
- Schedule the operating theater and similar energy-intensive areas in the hospital for the most efficient use while lowering power costs.
- Manage medical supply chains to maximize orders per shipment so fewer vehicles are needed for transportation, reducing emissions.
- Adjust hospitals’ heating, cooling, and ventilation usage based on current and future real-world usage, reducing power use and costs in the long run.
- Streamline administrative processes like patient processing and medical staff coverage to minimize delays and avoid wasting resources and time.
- Predict when hospital devices and equipment need repairs or replacement before issues arise, resulting in greater work safety and efficiency.
Challenges and Considerations: AI’s High Power Pricetag
Despite AI’s numerous benefits in healthcare sustainability, it faces one seemingly insurmountable hurdle: AI is very energy-intensive. For example, each response from the popular ChatGPT is estimated to consume 10 times more electricity than that performed by a similar, non-AI-powered search engine query from Google.
Several techniques are being examined to make AI computing more green. One such means is powering the AI using sustainable sources like solar and water power. Another is to make sure data centers running the AI are green, from being energy efficient to running on hardware purchased from environmentally-aware manufacturers. Finally, the algorithms run by the AI can be written to require less computational power.
Keep Your Healthcare Green With Cybernet AI Computer Solutions
Sustainability in healthcare looks to meet the current needs of the medical industry efficiently with an eye to preserving the planet for future generations. Medical groups are turning to AI for help in achieving these green goals, including dealing with the technology’s high power requirements.
If you want to use AI in your sustainability healthcare practice, contact the team at Cybernet Manufacturing. Like our standard medical computers and tablets, our AI computer solutions have been built from the ground up to meet healthcare’s unique environment. Our ever-helpful staff will happily cover them, whether medical-grade certifications or legacy device compatibility. And it’s not a problem if you can’t find the right one among our pre-built models. We’re an Original Equipment Manufacturer, and we can customize all our PCs to your exact needs.