With the global artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare market forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 49.1%, reaching US$164.16 billion by 2030, artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare is gradually altering traditional medical practices, ensuring early detection of most complex diseases even before their manifestation in the body. From AI-enabled EHRs and robotic surgeries to automated real-time engagement between pharmaceutical manufacturers and healthcare professionals (HCPs), AI is progressing toward playing a crucial role in the evolution of healthcare interactions in the United States and worldwide.
Despite the change, uncertainty around healthcare AI has remained at the same pace. For instance, in a recent study, researchers found that when identical medical advice was attributed to a human physician or an AI-supported chatbot, patients were found to be less likely to trust the advice if it came from AI. With talks in favour of both sides of the AI debate, HCPs and pharmaceutical manufacturers share the charge of critically observing diverse viewpoints and exploring its potential as a bridge to better patient outcomes.
Decoding The ’Fear’ of AI in Healthcare
With 529 data breaches reported in 2024 within the healthcare industry, patients’ fears around AI primarily stems from concerns over trust, transparency, and the possible absence of human instinct during decision making. Reflecting apprehensions regarding AI’s possible impact on impersonal healthcare interactions, a 2024 survey revealed that 68% of respondents were fearful that AI might weaken their relationship with their HCP.
As many patients remain skeptical about its influence on critical medical decisions, industry stakeholders highlight that HCPs excessive dependence on AI could weaken human oversight, potentially leading to overly mechanical treatment. For example, a 2023 case study by Pew Research Center revealed that 60% of adults in the US feel uncomfortable with their HCP relying on AI for diagnosing diseases and recommending treatments. By shedding light upon concerns pertaining to healthcare data security, 63% of patients expressed that the rising use of AI could pose a potential threat to their health information.
Why AI Matters: Enhancing Efficiency in Healthcare Interactions
1: Enriched HCP-Patient Engagement
Keeping AI-related apprehensions aside, AI’s prowess in real-time messaging and precision enables brands to enhance HCP-patient engagement by providing real-time insights into patients’ medical journeys. By utilizing AI-enabled electronic health records (EHRs) within an individual HCPs clinical workflow, brands can deliver targeted advertisements to HCPs, leading to enhanced HCP engagement with informed treatment decisions. Going beyond delivering targeted ads, AI also plays an important role in addressing treatment adherence and affordability challenges. For example, real-time messaging on individual patient’s copay eligibility allows HCPs to make informed prescription decisions and ensure improved treatment adherence.
2: Optimizing Healthcare Marketing Efficiency
Traditional marketing relied on on-ground drug trials, requiring substantial financial and resource investment. However, with the advent of digital, the healthcare marketing industry has evolved significantly, nudging stakeholders to choose quality over quantity for positive HCP engagement outcomes. Instead of bombarding HCPs with generic, inefficient messaging via non-endemic channels, AI-powered real-time insights empower brands to analyze individual HCP personas and deliver personalized messaging to the right doctor at critical moments of care. By ensuring that relevant information reaches precisely when it matters most, AI-enabled marketing can enhance efficiency and improve engagement, while keeping the core objective same, i.e., driving better healthcare outcomes.
3: Centralizing ad inventory for healthcare publishers
With programmatic advertising playing a crucial role in HCP-pharma interactions, publishers hold greater responsibility in ensuring these engagements are both meaningful and efficient. AI helps centralize and optimize ad inventory, streamlining how healthcare-related content reaches HCPs. By leveraging AI, publishers can ensure ads are relevant, high-quality, and aligned with the needs of HCPs, ultimately enhancing engagement. A more structured, AI-driven ad ecosystem allows for better content delivery, reducing irrelevant messaging and improving how HCPs interact with pharmaceutical information. By refining ad inventory and focusing on relevance, publishers empower more effective healthcare communications, benefiting all stakeholders involved.
4: Enhancing Decision-Making with Data-Driven Insights
Unlike before, AI-driven insights enable HCPs to absorb extensive medical knowledge within minutes, supporting them to make informed decisions despite their demanding schedules. Simultaneously, AI provides marketers with real-time performance analytics and HCP engagement patterns, allowing them to refine ongoing and future campaigns based on data-driven insights—ultimately saving time and money. This synergy creates an opportunity for both HCPs and marketers to engage more efficiently and meaningfully, ensuring more effective healthcare interactions. Speaking of medical advancements, AI streamlines clinical trial patient data access for HCPs, eliminating the need to sift through vast amounts of information. By customizing data based on HCP needs, AI can ensure that relevant insights are readily available, enhancing efficiency in both clinical decision-making and healthcare marketing strategies.
5: Automating Administrative Workflows for Greater Efficiency
From managing patient records and scheduling appointments to handling insurance claims and demanding work schedules of HCPs, administrative tasks can sometimes consume significant time and resources. Nonetheless, integration of AI-powered automation can streamline these processes, reducing manual workload for HCPs and healthcare staff. By minimizing paperwork and automating repetitive tasks, AI allows HCPs to dedicate more time to patient care. Additionally, AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants can manage routine inquiries, improving response times and reducing administrative burdens. For marketers, automation ensures seamless campaign execution, better compliance tracking, and improved audience targeting. By enhancing operational efficiency across the board, AI-driven automation fosters a healthcare ecosystem where HCPs, marketers, and patients can engage more effectively, leading to improved healthcare experiences and outcomes.
Placing All Pieces Together: Is AI Good for Healthcare?
With AI changing the landscape of healthcare by enhancing HCP-patient engagement along with streamlining healthcare marketing initiatives and administrative workflows, industry stakeholders can collectively work towards aligning marketing initiatives with positive healthcare outcomes.
Nonetheless, without human oversight, AI integration may come with risks of data manipulation and security breaches. Given that healthcare is the third-largest data producer globally, it is critical to implement stringent compliance measures while ensuring adhere to government regulations by establishing a dedicated regulatory body for continuous monitoring. As a balance between AI automation and human expertise is essential to maintain trust, accuracy, and efficiency in an industry as critical as the healthcare, it is imperative for stakeholders to prioritize responsible adoption of new age technologies and leverage the power of instinct to ensure informed decision-making.
Harshit Jain. MD
Harshit Jain, MD is Founder and Global CEO of Doceree, the First Global Network of Physician-only Platforms for Programmatic Marketing. With Doceree, he is aiming to address the acute problem of rising cost of healthcare by bringing in efficiency and effectiveness in marketing to Physicians by pharma brands on digital platforms with methodical use of data and creativity. A healthcare innovator, he is driving health transformation across the globe, delivering life changing, creative and sustainable ideas. Recognized as Elite 2020 Disrupter Award by premier global PM360 Magazine for his venture, Dr Harshit has addressed some of the biggest health challenges – Immunization, Vitamin D deficiency, Diabetes by creatively and innovatively using data. In his over 13 years of professional journey, he weaved together his domain expertise of medicine and his marketing acumen to come up with out-of-the box ideas and campaigns in the healthcare space.
