Cited by 203Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and EducationArtificial Intelligence ApplicationsArtificial Intelligence in Healthcare

The DOI matches its Crossref record, with a small difference in title or year; 31 of the 31 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 1 of the 27 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

Artificial intelligence: opportunities and implications for the health workforce

Open access
Hazarika, Indrajit·2020·International Health

Abstract

Healthcare involves cyclic data processing to derive meaningful, actionable decisions. Rapid increases in clinical data have added to the occupational stress of healthcare workers, affecting their ability to provide quality and effective services. Health systems have to radically rethink strategies to ensure that staff are satisfied and actively supported in their jobs. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to augment provider performance. This article reviews the available literature to identify AI opportunities that can potentially transform the role of healthcare providers. To leverage AI’s full potential, policymakers, industry, healthcare providers and patients have to address a new set of challenges. Optimizing the benefits of AI will require a balanced approach that enhances accountability and transparency while facilitating innovation.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This review argues that AI can augment the health workforce by improving productivity, reducing administrative workload, supporting diagnosis and teamwork, and potentially increasing satisfaction. It also identifies new challenges in liability, labour markets, competencies, ethics, regulation, and the provider–patient relationship, calling for balanced governance that enhances accountability and transparency while fostering innovation.

Key findings

  • AI may augment provider performance: nursing AI-enabled tools are reported to increase productivity by 30–50%, voice-to-text transcription is estimated to save 17% of doctors’ work time and 51% of registered nurses’ work time, and physicians in ambulatory settings already spend 49% of time on electronic health records and desk work versus 33% on direct clinical face time.
  • The AI healthcare market is expected to grow from US$2.1 billion in 2018 to US$36.1 billion by 2025, at a compound annual growth rate of 50.2%, with applications including administrative tasks, clinical decision aids, imaging, drug design, surgical robots, chatbots, and medication monitoring.
  • Workforce pressures are substantial: the needs-based shortage of healthcare workers was estimated at about 18 million in 2013; burnout rates reach between 25% and 75% in some clinical specialties; medical knowledge doubling time is projected at 73 days in 2020; and in the UK one in six patients have more than one chronic condition, accounting for approximately one-third of general practice consultations.
  • Newer challenges include ambiguous professional liability for AI-supported decisions, labour market shifts and demand for informatics skills, need for new provider competencies, ethical concerns about biased or nonrepresentative datasets and “black box” accountability, ill-defined regulatory evidence standards, and AI’s inability to possess human characteristics such as compassion and empathy.

Methods

  • Narrative literature review; the paper states it “reviews the available literature” to identify AI opportunities and implications for healthcare providers.
  • No primary data collection or sample is reported; evidence comes from cited studies, reports, and examples of healthcare AI applications.
  • Main analysis is a narrative synthesis of AI’s potential roles in productivity, workload, performance, teamwork, and satisfaction, followed by discussion of professional, labour market, competency, ethical, regulatory, and relational challenges.

Limitations

  • The paper states limitations of AI itself: dependence on availability and quality of health data, inherent biases and nonrepresentativeness in training datasets, difficulty interpreting “black box” systems, inability to display compassion, empathy, and the human touch, and ambiguous liability and regulatory standards.
  • Not stated in the paper; evident from the text: as a narrative review, it reports no systematic search strategy, databases, inclusion/exclusion criteria, or formal quality appraisal, so its conclusions may reflect selective evidence.
  • Not stated in the paper; evident from the text: several quantitative claims rely on reports, industry sources, or examples that may not be peer-reviewed or generalizable across health systems.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1093/inthealth/ihaa007

Cites

31 of 31 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

22 Not checked yet · 18 Own interpretation · 1 Couldn’t confirm · accuracy not yet measured

Verify all 26 references — free account

Show all 16 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 16
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 18
25 of 25
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The shortage and distribution challenges have led to increases in the workload and stress-related burnout of remaining staff, creating unsatisfactory work environments.

    “The shortage and distribution challenges have led to increases in the workload and stress-related burnout of remaining staff, creating unsatisfactory work environments.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The growth of consumerism and the proliferation of internet-accessible sources of health-related information will continue to modify the provider–patient relationship.

    “In addition, the growth of consumerism and the proliferation of internet-accessible sources of health-related information will continue to modify the provider–patient relationship.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Future medical practice will be characterized by the use of a growing array of data from multiple sources and AI applications.

    “Future medical practice will be characterized by the use of a growing array of data from multiple sources and AI applications.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    As the use of AI in the clinical space increases and evolves, legal and regulatory risk will increase, particularly since traditional regulatory principles are not yet attuned to AI.

    “As the use of AI in the clinical space increases and evolves, legal and regulatory risk will increase, particularly since traditional regulatory principles are not yet attuned to AI.”
4 of 4

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

Show all 31 references

Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. World Health Organization, 2016, Global strategy on human resources for health: workforce 2030
  2. Dall, 2018, 2018 update. The complexities of physician supply and demand: projections from 2016 to 2030
  3. World Health Organization, 2016, Report of the High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth
  4. Bresnick, Amazon takes on unstructured EHR data with machine learning, NLP.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 101–200 of 203

Metadata

Authors
Hazarika, I.
Affiliations
World Health Organization (CH)
Corresponding author
Hazarika, Indrajit
Venue
International Health
Published
2020-04-17
Volume
12
Issue
4
Pages
241-245
ISSN
  • 1876-3405 (ISSN-L)
  • 1876-3413
OpenAlex
W3016592756
Cited by
203
References
31
Citations by year
2026: 46 · 2025: 52 · 2024: 54 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2
FWCI
0.97
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • International Health (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
World Health Organization
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Health Informatics › Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Artificial Intelligence Applications
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Health Information Management › Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare
Keywords
artificial intelligence in healthcare, healthcare workers, occupational stress, clinical decision support, AI adoption barriers, transparency and accountability, AI policy
MeSH terms
Artificial Intelligence, Delivery of Health Care, Health Workforce, Humans, Medical Informatics, Primary Health Care

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