Healthcare providers in the United States face many transportation problems that can affect patient care. One big challenge is making sure patient transportation services run on time, especially for elderly patients or those with long-term illnesses. Missed or late appointments because of transportation problems can make health worse and cost more money. This problem happens a lot. On average, more than 20% of medical appointments are missed, which disrupts care. These missed appointments often happen because of transportation troubles, hard scheduling, or no easy transit options. For healthcare systems, this means inefficient use of resources, longer wait times, and often worse health results. Because of this problem, many health providers in the U.S. are trying to find better transportation solutions to help patients get to their appointments. This helps reduce missed visits and helps patients follow their treatment plans better. Patient Transportation Solutions That Improve Outcomes One example of a tool that helps with transportation in healthcare is the patient transportation software called “Roundtrip.” It is used by many health systems in the U.S. Roundtrip has shown good results by lowering missed appointment rates for patients with chronic diseases to under 4%, which is much better than the usual 20% or more. Roundtrip lets care teams book many types of transportation. This includes rideshare services like Lyft and Uber, medical sedans, vans for wheelchairs, stretcher vehicles, and advanced life support transport. This lets healthcare staff pick the right kind of ride for each patient quickly. Healthcare workers using Roundtrip say it helps their work run more smoothly. For example, Ivone, a Care Manager at Bon Secours Health System, said it is easier to use than older methods like fax machines. Yahaira, a Counselor at Crozer-Keystone Health System, said that having reliable transportation helps patients get better because they can go to their treatments. Will, a Patient Navigator at Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, said that the scheduling tools help handle patients’ complex appointment needs. This type of coordination helps patients attend doctor’s visits, therapy sessions, and follow-up appointments more regularly. Seeing their doctors more often means illness can be managed earlier, leading to fewer problems. Transportation Logistics Beyond Patient Rides Transportation in healthcare is not only about moving patients. Moving medical supplies, equipment, test samples, and medicines on time is just as important. Good hospital logistics help reduce treatment delays, speed up lab work, and give doctors and nurses more time to care for patients instead of moving items around. For example, some big hospitals use automated systems called pneumatic tube systems (PTS) to quickly send lab samples, blood, and medicines. A large hospital might have many tube stations and long tubes controlled by computer software. These systems reduce mistakes and delays. Faster lab results let doctors diagnose and treat patients sooner. Also, sending blood safely from blood banks to clinics speeds up care in emergencies and surgeries. These new systems help hospitals work better by freeing nurses and lab workers from transport tasks so they can focus more on patients. Healthcare Supply Chain and Logistics for Medical Devices and Equipment The supply chain for medical devices and equipment also depends on good logistics. Healthcare providers need devices on time and must keep an accurate count of what they have. This helps avoid treatment delays and keeps safety standards. If there are delays or mistakes in the supply chain, it can cause device shortages, longer wait times, and worse health results. Better logistics help control costs, reduce waste, and keep important technology available for diagnosis and treatment. Systems that track inventory and automatically reorder supplies help reduce the work on hospital staff and improve how things run. In the U.S., healthcare rules are strict. Logistics systems must follow these rules and still allow fast access to important medical devices. This helps improve patient care. Emerging Trends: Drone Delivery and Digital Healthcare Logistics Recently, healthcare logistics have started using new technology like drones and digital inventory systems to fix old problems like traffic and slow deliveries. Drones are a good option, especially in cities and rural places where roads might be busy or poor. A study in Delhi, India showed that using drones with smart planning cut delivery times for medical supplies by up to 60%, and delivery success went up by 18% compared to regular methods. This study was not done in the U.S., but the ideas could work in America, especially in rural areas or busy cities. Drones can carry important things like blood, vaccines, and medicines fast. Smart computer programs help plan drone routes in real time to make sure urgent deliveries happen quickly. Along with drones, digital healthcare systems track supplies in real time, use automated controls for inventory, and analyze data. These systems help hospitals predict what supplies they will need, manage stock better, reduce waste, and keep care running nonstop. The Role of AI and Workflow Automation in Healthcare Transportation Logistics Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation now play a big role in healthcare transportation. AI can study large amounts of data to predict needs, plan routes, assign resources, and help make decisions fast. For patient transport, companies like VectorCare make platforms that cut scheduling time by more than 90%. For example, a 250-bed hospital with about 25 transports each day used to spend almost 4,700 hours a year scheduling. With AI, this drops to under 500 hours a year. This saves a lot of staff time for patient care. VectorCare uses AI and machine learning to automate scheduling, assigning resources, managing vendors, and billing. The system connects with electronic health records (EHR), dispatch systems, and billing software to keep workflows smooth and efficient. Hospitals that use AI-powered transport say they get fewer phone calls and fewer scheduling mistakes. Jim Karras, Vice President and COO, said calls for transport requests are handled instantly without customer service people needing to check each detail. Brian Napoli, Chief Operating Officer, added that this reduces wasted time on call-backs and helps hospitals run better. AI also helps manage non-emergency medical

Ahead of Intelligent Health (13-14 September 2023, Basel, Switzerland), we asked Yurii Kryvoborodov, Head of AI & Data Consulting, Unicsoft, his thoughts on the future of AI in healthcare.   Do you think the increased usage of Generative AI and LLMs will have a dramatic impact on the healthcare industry and, if so, how?   Generative AI is just a part of the disruptive impact of all AI tech on the healthcare industry. It allows to dramatically reduce time efforts, costs and chances of mistakes. Generative AI and LLMs are applied to automating clinical documentation, drug discovery, tailoring of treatment plans to individual patients, real-time clinical decision support and health monitoring, extracting valuable insights from unstructured clinical records, streamlining administrative tasks like billing and claims processing, providing instant access to comprehensive medical knowledge. And this list continues.

We sat with Benjamin von Deschwanden, Co-Founder and CPO at Acodis AG, to ask him his thoughts on the future of AI in healthcare.   Do you think the increased usage of Generative AI and LLMs will have a dramatic impact on the healthcare industry and, if so, how?   I think that the strength of Generative AI lies in making huge amounts of information accessible without needing to manually sift through the source material. Being able to quickly answer any questions is going to be transformative for everyone working with increasingly bigger data sets.The challenge will be to ensure that the information we get by means of Generative AI is correct and complete – especially in healthcare – as the consequences of wrong data can be fatal. We at Acodis are actively working on practical applications of Generative AI inside our Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) Platform for Life Science and Pharma clients to drive efficiency and accelerate time to market, whilst controlling the risks.

Intelligent Health 2024 returns to Basel, Switzerland on 11th–12th September. We’ve got prominent speakers. An extensive programme. Groundbreaking advancements in #HealthTech. And much, much more. Our incredible 2024 programme will dive deeper than ever before. From sharing the latest innovation insights to exploring use cases of AI application in clinical settings from around the world. All through our industry-renowned talks, limitless networking opportunities, and much-loved, hands-on workshops. Read on to discover what themes await at the world’s largest AI and healthcare summit. 

We sat down with Margrietha H. (Greet) Vink, Erasmus MC’s Director of Research Development Office and Smart Health Tech Center, to ask her for her thoughts on the future of AI in healthcare.   Do you think the increased usage of Generative AI and LLMs will have a dramatic impact on the healthcare industry and, if so, how?   The integration of Generative AI and LLMs into the healthcare industry holds the potential to revolutionise various aspects of patient care, from diagnostics and treatment to administrative tasks and drug development. However, this transformation will require careful consideration of ethical, legal, and practical challenges to ensure that the benefits are realised in a responsible and equitable manner.