Centre for Ageing Better_'Digital inclusion'

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Care analysis: The need to embrace disruption – Supply: AI transforming care

Healthier working lives for the care workforce insights

01 September 2023

A snapshot of current research provides critical insight into the acute pressure the care sector is under, as well as transformative digital innovation taking place. We share insight into the care sector through the two lenses of Demand: care providers, and Supply: solution providers - two perspectives in which to examine contemporary topics in the care sector, and that inform HWL programme.

We look at Supply, and the transformative digital innovation taking place.

Providing the best care possible for residents is the aim of every social care company. With budgets under increasing pressure even before the pandemic, finding ways to improve outcomes whilst making efficiencies has become the holy grail in the sector.

Artificial Intelligence is influencing every part of our lives, so utilising AI capabilities in social care is a natural progression. As the sector drifts inexorably towards collapse and research is repeated over and over to arrive at the same conclusions, disruptive AI powered solutions need to be embraced rapidly to break the log jam and attract talent and free up staff to do what they love doing - caring.

Three AI perspectives

The big picture from McKinsey; UK adoption from Carehome.co.uk; and international enterprises from the Holding Co.

1) McKinsey: Six core areas, and three phases

For a global perspective, the European Union EIT Health and McKinsey 2022 briefing looks at how practitioners and organizations will be affected to cast light on the priorities and trade-offs for different parts of the healthcare system in Europe.

McKinsey & Co transforming healthcare with AI 2023

Source: McKinsey & Company transforming healthcare with AI 2023

The report looks at detailed examples of existing AI solutions in six core areas where AI has a direct impact on the patient and three areas of the healthcare value chain that could benefit from further scaling of AI.

We are in the very early days of our understanding of AI and its full potential in healthcare, in particular with regards to the impact of AI on personalization. Nevertheless, interviewees and survey respondents conclude that over time we could expect to see three phases of scaling AI in healthcare, looking at solutions already available and the pipeline of ideas.– McKinsey & Company, 'Transforming healthcare with AI 2023'.

PHASE 1 - Systems. Solutions are likely to address the low-hanging fruit of routine, repetitive and largely administrative tasks, which absorb significant time of doctors and nurses, optimizing healthcare operations and increasing adoption.

PHASE 2 - Home. We expect more AI solutions that support the shift from hospital-based to home-based care, such as remote monitoring, AI-powered alerting systems, or virtual assistants, as patients take increasing ownership of their care.

PHASE 3 - Clinical. We would expect to see more AI solutions in clinical practice based on evidence from clinical trials, with increasing focus on improved and scaled clinical decision-support (CDS) tools in a sector that has learned lessons from earlier attempts to introduce such tools into clinical practice and has adapted its mind-set, culture and skills.

With the care sector concerned about the risks technology and nervous of investment the direction of travel is inevitable.

Find out more here

2) Carehome.co.uk. Running sustainable businesses.

With a UK viewpoint, Carehome.co.uk reported in a 2021 survey of 2,611 care home owners, managers and staff that 52% of care home staff think homes should use AI such as smart devices to help care for residents.

AI can help people with limited mobility to regain some of their autonomy using their voice to control their environment, such as by operating light switches and temperature, as well as enabling them to call their friends and family.– Carehome.co.uk

AI’s obvious benefit for social care providers is in helping increase efficiency in the actual running of the business. Digital administration for staffing, accounts, and maintenance means staff can spend more time with residents and less on paperwork, and will have the added benefit of making the service inspection-ready with information available at their fingertips.– Carehome.co.uk

With many care homes struggling to survive AI provides many of the answers they ate looking for. They just need to take the plunge.

Find out more here.

3) The Holding Co: Letting carer’s care.

For an international dimension the US based Holding Co that works in collaboration with Pivotal Ventures, (the investment and incubation company by Melinda French Gates) was formed out of a year-long research exploration on caregiving in America in 2019. The Holding Co, is researching the range of ways that AI is already and may impact care in the future.

“At the intersection of AI, care, and design, we see a world of new possibilities for innovators and investors. So much of care work is administrative drudgery–the seemingly never ending and often largely invisible cycle of coordinating, navigating, scheduling, organizing etc. This cognitive and logistical load buries caregivers–unpaid and paid–on a daily basis. AI presents a profound possibility to lift the administrative burden off of caregivers’ shoulders.– The Holding Co, 'A spotlight on AI in the care economy'

Additionally, AI opens up new possibilities for tending to the safety concerns that are an inevitable part of caregiving. Many care companies are looking to AI to detect disruptions in typical user patterns, track health data via wearables, and offer new forms of interaction to cut down on isolation–all of which enables elders to maintain financial security and independence longer. – The Holding Co, 'A spotlight on AI in the care economy'

Like so many others, we are also worried about this breakthrough moment in technology. There are some real fears of how AI might impact the care system, which is already broken in so many ways.”– The Holding Co, 'A spotlight on AI in the care economy'

Many care providers are experimenting with using AI to lighten the burdens of care and make operations more efficient. The Holding Co has investigated five functions where AI is at work.

AI will transform enterprises and experiences

As AI becomes more ubiquitous, 10,000 Baby Boomers a day are turning 65, there’s no question that this new technology will transform aging in the coming years.

Day by day care demand is becoming more acute, the red hazard lights have been flashing brighter and care givers energy reserves are close to empty. Radical action is required in the form of both policy shifts and adoption of disruptive innovative practice.

As the sector drifts inexorably towards collapse and research is repeated over and over to arrive at the same conclusions, disruptive AI powered solutions need to be embraced rapidly to break the log jam and attract talent and free up staff to do what they love doing. Caring.

Find out more about AI

'THE A.I. DILEMMA' - a video explainer with Tristan Harris and Asa Raskin, of the Center for Humane Technology, March 9, 2023
'DESIGN AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE' - a video explainer with Tristan Harris and Asa Raskin, of the Center for Humane Technology, March 9, 2023
'FREAKED OUT? WE REALLY CAN PREPARE FOR A.I'. - a conversation between Ezra Klein and Kelsey Piper, both journalists who have researched A.I. for awhile and both parents
'THE FUTURE OF ELDER CARE IS HERE, AND IT’S ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE' - The Guardian, June 3, 2021

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