Will Personalized A.I. Transform Our Health?
Artificial intelligence has made its way to the front page of every industry, and healthcare is no exception. While much of the focus has been on automating operational tasks, attempts are also being made to impact consumer health—from access to personalized recommendations directly from Apple Health data to enterprise solutions like Thrive Global and OpenAI’s recently launched health coach, which aims to deliver “hyper-personalized” behavioral change. Research has shown that personalization can improve adherence by 52 percent in areas such as cardiovascular care and upwards of 13 percent in the metabolic health space. Given the recent frenzy around weight loss medications like Ozempic, metabolic health has become an area that’s particularly interesting to watch. The laundry list of core issues that have been exposed—including supply chain management, drug symptoms, adherence and lack of metabolic health specialists—has created a promising opportunity for new technology adoption.
Behavioral change—an aspect of care that has been heavily relied on in weight management—can be hard to improve. The burden of enacting behavioral change falls on the patients, and adhering to standard doctor recommendations has historically been challenging, in part due to serious biases overweight patients face in clinical settings. Large language models (LLMs) have significantly improved the accessibility of technology that allows for personalization and effectiveness of behavioral change. The constant availability and ability to mimic human reasoning make integrating such technology into existing experiences, like health coaching, easier. Training, fine-tuning and guardrails can also help these technologies avoid stigmatizing language that prevents effective treatment for many individuals.
Excerpted from Observer
