Can Artificial Intelligence Support Healthcare Workers Managing Low-Literacy Patients in Resource-Limited Settings?

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming healthcare around the world with its greatest potential in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), which face workforce shortages, long travel distances, and limited diagnostic capability. AI is an equalizing agent in resource-limited environments, reinforcing the obligation for safe and responsible use for both patients and healthcare workers as highlighted in this perspective. For instance, patients from rural areas can use AI-enabled medication checkers, to identify possible drug interactions, explain side effects, and provide reliable information about known illnesses with strong disclaimers against self-diagnosis or self-medication. For healthcare workers, AI can create efficiency in workflow, assist in the review of radiologic findings, and support task-shifting in overburdened health systems. This perspective also emphasizes the importance of AI literacy, ethical guidelines, and free continuing professional education (CME) offered by governments and policymakers to support equitable and context appropriate use. Thus, AI can provide a useful, responsible, demonstrably helpful force multiplier, augmenting healthcare capacity, patient safety, and access to quality care in low- and middle-income countries while giving providers helpful advantages in systems where they face overwhelming constraints of time and expertise.

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