Omicron Looms Large Over Healthcare Workers, And AI Can Help
By Eran Atlas, Co-Founder and CEO of DreaMed Diabetes
Swift decisions need to be made when a pandemic hits, but emergency policies shouldn’t last forever. As COVID-19 vaccination rates rise and the U.S. and other countries gain more knowledge of the virus, decision-makers must adjust their policies to better prepare for omicron and future variants. Of the more than 240 million people confirmed to have contracted COVID-19, more than 5 million people have died. Beyond leading to overcrowding and overwhelmed hospitals, COVID-19 also created a bottleneck of non-COVID patients, resulting in overcrowded and overwhelmed hospitals becoming the status quo, resulting in burnt-out healthcare workers. Policy makers need to implement long term solutions to mitigate further burnout from healthcare workers, mainly by using artificial intelligence (AI).
Burnout for healthcare workers has been an issue long before COVID-19 due to the increasing need for documentation. In a survey of 5,197 U.S. physicians, physician-rated usability of electronic health records had a strong relationship with burnout. This is unsurprising since the average physician works between 40 and 60 hours a week. Burnout not only decreases patient care but also leads to an array of personal problems among physicians, including drug and alcohol addiction, which has serious repercussions. According to an extensive study in 2018, physicians are twice as likely to commit suicide than the general population.
Burnout costs the U.S. healthcare system billions annually, with 49 percent of healthcare workers attributing burnout to the pandemic. In spring 2020, 30-40 percent of healthcare workers burned out, rising to 60 percent the following year. Healthcare workers were not trained to be on the front lines of battle but soon found themselves in a pandemic war zone, resulting in extreme trauma for many and a mass exodus of health workers from the field.
Even as vaccines become readily available worldwide, it’s becoming apparent COVID-19 isn’t going away. New variants seem to pop up every day, and the winter months ahead almost guarantee a new wave of lockdowns and fear. Hospitals need to realize the reality and make policies that address the ongoing issue of healthcare workers, not ones made out of fear and haste, but rather calculated decisions to prevent losing a functioning healthcare workforce.
According to an estimated statistic by the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, the healthcare sector has lost nearly half a million workers since February 2020. Women comprise over 70 percent of the health and social care workforce, globally and were disproportionately affected by the pandemic, as they juggle work and home responsibilities, having to be completely overwhelmed at work, and juggle home life and kids.
For every hour physicians do in-person care, an additional two hours are spent on documentation. AI can be used to streamline patient care, making more time for physicians to treat more patients. For example, AI in the form of natural language processing (NLP) can be used to analyze clinical notes on patients, and offer new insights, resulting in better care for the patient. Having more automated systems AI and Telemedicine may be the solution to reduce paperwork and free up time to focus on patient care. The initial investment will make healthcare workers down the road feel less burnt out.
Another possible solution is to prevent diseases before they become deadly, including preventative strategies using AI. Specifically chronic diseases take a large toll on the healthcare system. 60 percent of Americans had at least one chronic condition, and 42 percent had multiple chronic conditions, according to a 2014 study. Chronic diseases such as diabetes have increased dramatically with more than 100 million Americans living with diabetes or prediabetes according to a study released by the Center for Disease Control. The 2020 National Diabetes Statistics Report revealed 1 in 4 Americans didn’t even know they had the disease.
There are many risk factors associated with diabetes including increased risk of cardiovascular disease, nerve damage, foot damage. Using AI technology to analyze risk associated with diabetes, can prevent diabetics from undergoing limb amputations, according to a recent study. The AI technology in the study scanned 14.2 million documents to identify patients with diabetic foot disease, making it easier to schedule earlier treatments to spare foot amputation. The shift towards AI driven preventative medicine, reduces the amount of patients in the hospital, and the burden on healthcare workers.
By shifting the focus to telemedicine, AI-driven technologies, and preventative healthcare hopefully, physicians will feel less stress and be able to focus more time on patients. It’s of utmost importance for our healthcare workers to not feel overburdened in order to sustain a successful healthcare system.
About Eran Atlas:
Eran Atlas co-founded DreaMed Diabetes with the goal of improving diabetes care and is the acting CEO ever since. Eran earned his M.Sc in Biomedical Engineering and MBA degrees at Tel Aviv University after which he was a lecturer at the Afeka College of Engineering. As an expert in biomedical engineering and algorithm development, he is responsible for commercial partnerships, leading the R&D and regulatory activities. After accomplishing the artificial pancreas closed-loop software, Eran’s focus was shifted to developing the Advisor Pro- an insulin management system enabling healthcare professionals to analyze patient data within seconds.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.