SMART SEARCH AND MODERN MEDICAL INFORMATION (MI) DELIVER VALUE FOR YOUR TEAMS AND THE WIDER BUSINESS By Dr. Keith Tsui and Dr. Paul Riley
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies can be used to deliver smart search for healthcare and life science organisations, improving efficiency and providing data insights to customer thinking and behaviour. Here’s how. It’s Monday morning — your list of projects is still there from last week, including plans and initiatives to help you and the team work smarter. You need to get on with these things, you acknowledge, because the battle to manage the growing workload is ever-present, and there is no end to the number of publications and sources of information you need to manage to be able to do your job. But at times, it is overwhelming. Employing more people would help, but that’s not on the horizon. Technology is the answer, the company leaders are saying, when talking about the mountain of work the company needs to get through this year and next. But introducing technology is not straightforward: there are hoops to jump through, people to consult, budgets to secure. And who has time for that?
If your company isn’t already using AI and NLP, or at least working out how best to adopt it, you are at risk of falling behind the curve. The pharma industry is adopting digital technology at pace: large and small medical information teams worldwide are already using AI-powered products and services to improve quality and efficiency - the notion that AI & NLP is for other companies, or something to consider next year, is misplaced. The technology is here today, and to not use it may mean that your company is missing out on a valuable business asset. Healthcare professionals (HCPs) are increasingly adopting a multitude of AI-powered technologies to improve the speed and precision of medical interventions for patients. The technology is also used behind the scenes, helping manage surgical schedules, patient appointments, medical records, and more. Its use in other industries is commonplace.
This issue of excessive workload and keeping up with technology isn’t just found in pharma – it is affecting all industries. Artificial intelligence (AI) was once considered more of a sci-fi term than one you would encounter during your daily life. But AI is now commonplace, accomplishing both simple and more complex tasks to help speed up processes that take humans considerably longer to do. Natural language processing (NLP) may be unfamiliar to many of us, but it is in routine use in many industries, and you are likely benefiting from it regularly. Google Search, for example, uses both AI and cutting-edge NLP technologies.
The great news for medical information teams is that introducing AI and NLP to your processes doesn’t need to be a journey into the unknown. The technology is tried and tested, and the risks are known, as are the measures to mitigate those risks. That said, the perceived newness of the technology means people worry about whether they can trust the results generated by AI and NLP-powered processes. There are plenty of examples of how AI and NLP have enabled companies to cover more ground in a shorter time; for example, enabling the 36
