Can the healthcare IT sector really do without AI?

Written by Bert Mooij, CEO of ConsultAssistent.

Two weeks ago, I was walking through the Zorg & ICT trade show and had a flashback to about 15 years ago. Back then, there seemed to be only one solution to every problem in healthcare: the mobile app. Didn’t have an app? Then you basically didn’t count.

We were inundated with apps. Patients could control their pain relief, order food, or call a nurse using an app. Healthcare professionals were given tools for mindfulness, time tracking, and voice-activated reporting. In 2012, the first Mobile Healthcare conference was organized by SBO Study Center for Business and Government, and today apps have become an integral part of hybrid care pathways—from home monitoring to direct communication between patients and healthcare providers.

AI is the new buzzword. In fact, it seems to be the solution to everything: if your product doesn’t have AI, you’re basically out of the loop—or so it seemed at Zorg en ICT.

Developments are happening at lightning speed. This year, IQVIA is organizing the second national AI in healthcare conference, and the first AI applications—such as Ambient Listening and RPA—are now being widely adopted and scaled up. Meanwhile, apps are being enhanced with AI speech technology, smart navigation, and chatbots.

But this wave of AI is different. Bigger. Faster. More powerful. Why ?

  • Big Tech is more powerful than ever
  • Access to data is virtually unlimited
  • Computing power is growing exponentially
  • The pressure on the healthcare system is increasing
  • Technology is improving every day
  • The costs are relatively low
  • Patients are already making extensive use of AI on their own

Healthcare institutions are currently using AI primarily to reduce administrative burdens. More and more organizations are developing an AI strategy—a trend also confirmed by M&I/Partners. Under the IZA-AZWA program, the government will invest an additional 800 million in the nationwide expansion of labor-saving AI, digital and hybrid healthcare, and medical technology.

So… can the healthcare IT sector still function without AI? Yes , of course it can. The healthcare sector has managed without it for a very long time, but… the demand for care is increasing while the workforce is shrinking.

So the real question is: how much longer? If AI becomes smarter, faster, more efficient, more accurate, more reliable, safer, and cheaper than humans—why wouldn’t we embrace it wholeheartedly?

At ConsultAssistent, we have been using AI for quite some time to improve our own processes. This includes more efficient software development, machine learning predictive models, and summarizing automated medical history reports using Large Language Models (LLM).

The next step? Support with diagnostics. We’re asking ourselves whether we can use AI—based on the automated medical history and the appropriate clinical information—to establish a differential diagnosis, including recommendations for the corresponding treatment plan. This is (fortunately) subject to strict laws and regulations. We hold the appropriate NEN and ISO certifications for information security and are actively working to convert our CE marking into MDR certification so that we can and are permitted to provide predictive value.

One thing is absolutely clear: we do this with the utmost focus on privacy, information security, transparency, and safety. Everything is hosted by our 100% Dutch and sovereign hosting partner, Intermax Cloudsourcing.

I'm convinced that AI can help keep healthcare in the Netherlands accessible and affordable. What do you think?