A review of AI and ML applications in healthcare management

Abstract

Research has been supporting the healthcare sector by developing digital tools like AI to transform the sector rapidly towards evidence-based, patient-centric and error-free quality care. Many reviews have been published on research done on this topic. This review attempts to update the current knowledge and discover the potential for future scope of AI and ML applications in healthcare management.
The search for papers on the databases of NCBI, CNAHL and World of Science was augmented with a search on Google Scholar. The papers identified were screened through the PRISMA flow process. Finally, 20 papers could be selected for this review.
Overall, the review provided a comprehensive picture of AI, its applications, usefulness, barriers and challenges to address and impact on evidence-based personalised healthcare quality. Five reviews discussed the status and potential of AI in healthcare. They also discussed the challenges and solutions to them. The role played by AI in managing COVID, especially in developing countries, is notable. India dominated among the countries of the study; empirical studies used various methods like surveys, interviews, focus groups and mixed approaches. Methodological limitations of various types were noted as limitations in most papers. Most papers provided recommendations either for research or for practice, and rarely both. The 20 reviewed papers were mostly medium to high quality.
Some limitations of this review and recommendations for research and practice have been given.