Gurdeep Kaur is a Senior Lecturer at IHM, North Melbourne, with over two decades of experience in nursing education and clinical practice. She holds a Master’s degree in Nursing (Obstetrics & Gynecology) and is a registered Division 1 nurse in Australia. As a published nursing textbook author and experienced educator, she has contributed significantly to curriculum development and nursing research. Her expertise spans both academic and clinical settings, including roles at major Australian hospitals and various educational institutions, with a focus on evidence-based teaching and multicultural education.
As a Nursing Lecturer with years of academic and bedside experience, I have observed how artificial intelligence, telemedicine, and wearable technologies are reshaping the healthcare world.
The integration of AI, telemedicine, and wearable technologies isn’t just changing how we monitor and treat our patients—it is vitally reshaping the health sector approach to treating clients with their health issues. While providing compassionate care to clients and patients, these technologically advanced equipment with AI techs are empowering healthcare workers to deliver more efficient, precise, proactive and easily accessible health-related services. While healthcare workers are saving their efforts and time to treat clients proactively with the help of AI-integrated technology, clients are also successful in saving their time and the cost of treatment. With the help of AI-integrated health services, life expectancy is also improving at a fast pace. From my professional perspective, I will explore the multifaceted positive impacts of these innovations along with some limitations on healthcare delivery.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Medical Imaging: AI is helpful for nurses and physicians by critical findings on imaging and scans, saving time to commence their treatment. Using immediate alerts from these AI medical imaging is very helpful in detecting potential complications, assisting in faster diagnosis and reducing the need for repeated imaging. Findings are making it easy for the clients to make informed decisions by highlighting areas of concern that might be easily missed by the human eye, particularly in complex or large datasets of medical images like X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs.
- Wearable Technology (WT) monitoring clients remotely: It is a trend to offer care to clients remotely where it is difficult to access health care services frequently related to insufficient transportation. Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) systems are helpful for nurses by allowing them to continuously monitor patients’ vital signs and health data from miles away. Consistent monitoring enables nurses to commence early intervention in case of emergency situations of clients, reducing mortality and morbidity scenarios. Wearable technology allows nurses to early intervention, develop personalized care plans, and improve patient outcomes through features like remote monitoring, data analysis, and predictive algorithms, ultimately leading to better disease prevention and management of chronic conditions. AI- supported wearables are also helpful in reducing unnecessary clinic visits and improving patient self-management to handle their complex care needs, ultimately enhancing overall patient care quality. For example, Smart Wearables are Apple Watch Series 8 and updated versions, Continuous Glucose Monitoring, advanced Sleep Tracking and Remote Cardiac Monitoring.
- Robotic Surgery and Assistance: Robotic surgery and assistance can help nurses in several ways, including by reducing manual workload, such as frequently measuring vital signs. Nurses save their time and can focus more clearly on improving patient care. For educational and training opportunities, these surgery robots are very helpful for surgeons and nurses who want to collaborate with other health-related disciplines. Furthermore, on the floor, to meet general needs, Robotic systems can perform physical tasks, delivering meals and medicines and improve patient-linked care to speed up recovery times.
- Virtual and Augmented Reality Applications: Medical Training using AI-integrated instruments increases the confidence of healthcare workers to learn faster and reduce errors. For example, we are using Microsoft HoloLens in surgical planning for 3D holographic anatomy visualization, Oculus Quest systems for medical student training and virtual patient interactions and AccuVein using AR vein visualization for nursing students. Same for nurses, understanding human anatomy using this AI technology deepens their understanding to implement nursing practice on the floor.
- Virtual Consultations and Breaking Down Geographic Barriers: The rapid adoption of Virtual consultations using telehealth has significantly improved healthcare accessibility, particularly for clients living in remote and regional areas where transportation access is difficult. Virtual consultations have made general and specialist care available to this group of population. Mental health services have become more easily accessible through video conferencing platforms and health Apps in many underserved regions. Remote monitoring systems allow healthcare providers to track patient progress and adjust treatment plans without requiring in-person visits. It is a time-saver and cost-effective way to provide healthcare services for both healthcare workers and healthcare industries.
- The Evolving Role of AI in Research Area: As technology reshapes healthcare delivery, the role of AI is also increased in our research area. Numerous AI tools are helpful for literature review, data collection, hypothesis generation, screening, image analysis, etc. Tools used for these needs in the research areas are significantly helpful in finding gaps, finding relevant literature and creating new insights.
Challenges and Ethical Considerations
Although AI has been playing a pivotal role in healthcare sectors, its integration presents significant challenges when it comes to ethical considerations and its implementation worldwide. Inculcated AI in today’s health world is not easy to follow for all healthcare professionals, and its applications are also limiting human connection, which is essential to providing quality care. Privacy concerns, data security, and algorithmic bias in AI systems
need careful consideration for the safety of clients. Even among different demographic groups, the application of AI health tools is unequal. Moreover, the use of AI relies on strong network connections, which is still not feasible in each corner of the world. Learning how to operate these AI tolls and health wearables is another challenge.
Future Perspectives and Innovations
Moving forward, healthcare is significantly for even more dramatic technological transformation to be adopted by health professionals. Telemedicine based on genetic profiles of the clients and collected real-time health data will become a more standard practice. With some more technical advancements, Artificial intelligence will play an expanding role in early detection of diagnosis and treatment planning. Remote monitoring and virtual care will expand significantly, creating new highlighted possibilities for future preventive healthcare and managing complex disease scenarios.
Mutual Collaboration for Innovation
Successful implementation of healthcare AI-based technology requires a mutual collaboration between multiple stakeholders, including healthcare providers, healthcare industries, and policymakers, to ensure new solutions meet clinical needs. As AI is playing a crucial role in health sectors, we still need to create strong regulatory frameworks that protect patient interests and the privacy of their personal data. Academic institutions contribute through research and education to improve AI use successfully, while patient advocacy groups encourage valuable feedback on user experiences.
Lastly, I believe that the integration of AI-based technology in the healthcare sector displays both an opportunity and a challenge for healthcare industries. To bring their successful implementation needs very careful consideration of ethical implications and commitment to maintaining the human element in the healthcare industry, while these modern innovations offer tremendous roles for improving client care. To conclude, I strongly believe there must be a significant focus on leveraging technology to enhance without replacing essential human components of healthcare delivery.