For patients, the price of cancer testing and treatment can add more stress to an already difficult journey. As AI begins to streamline care, the question becomes: Will those efficiencies make tests and care more affordable and accessible for those who need them? Based on expert insights, here’s a look at five ways the use of AI could save patients money as they determine their course of action.
AI Helps Doctors De-Escalate Care When Treatment Isn’t Necessary
Reducing the intensity or duration of therapy for cancer patients can be one of the benefits of using AI during treatment.
“I, for the most part, find the benefit in this de-escalation of care,” said Dr. Zachary D. Horne, a radiation oncologist in Pennsylvania.
This can include reducing drug doses, omitting certain procedures, or simply being less aggressive in outlining a treatment plan. With each shift, the patient can also help reduce overall costs.
AI Prevents One-Size-Fits-All Treatment That Drives Up Costs
Previously, a specific diagnosis could lead a patient down a treatment path that was based on a general blueprint. Rather than an individualized plan, the treatment could be based on the history and success of other patients – even if their circumstances were varied.
“We’re really treating every prostate cancer that’s diagnosed kind of as a one-size-fits-all,” said Dr. Nitin Yerram, director of urologic research and co-director of urologic oncology at Hackensack University Medical Center. “And we’ve known over the last decade, or if not longer, that that’s not necessarily the case.”
It’s a sentiment shared by Dr. Horne.
“Historically, yes, that would have been the case,” Horne said. “We would have given everyone like you anti-testosterone therapy for about half of a year because we know that across a whole population of men like you, it’s going to help some.”
Personalized treatments not only empower doctors and patients to make more precise decisions but can also lead to long-term savings on medical bills.
AI Testing Avoids Additional Procedures That Add Expense
Each procedure that is avoided is money saved for the patient. And AI helps determine when specific procedures truly aren’t necessary. For example, there are now AI tools that analyze existing samples that came from previous procedures. This eliminates the costs associated with additional procedures or processes that previously would’ve been necessary.
“It doesn’t even require an additional biopsy,” Horne said. “The tissue that high-resolution pathology scans comes from the tissue already obtained from their prostate biopsy previously. So they don’t have to do anything additional.”
AI Helps Patients Avoid Costly Side Effects That Lead to More Medical Bills
The more invasive or intense a cancer treatment is, the more likely that patients will experience side effects. Those unwelcome drawbacks or complications are both physically unpleasant and potentially expensive.
“Most other urologists probably would have said, ‘I’m gonna take this out, I’m gonna radiate you, I’m gonna do surgery on you,’” Yerram said. “That obviously comes with certain side effects that are very unwelcome for most men.”
AI can help remove those adverse effects from the picture.
“If we can avoid all of those things, which are mostly quality of life, but some actually can lead to other medical issues, we should, especially in a setting where it’s not going to help us cure the patient more often and only increases the cost of their treatment and the inconveniences and the side effects,” Horne said.
AI Supports Shared Decision-Making Instead of Guesswork
While guesswork has long been part of the role that cancer doctors play in guiding their patients through testing and treatment, AI tools help create a clear vision and share in the ultimate decision-making.
“It’s helpful to have a real kind of validated concrete data,” Yerram said.
This focus and precision help save patients stress, time, and money. And give doctors the confidence to move forward. Tools such as Artera AI, for example, offer AI-enabled predictive and prognostic cancer tests. After testing, the AI analyzes multiple characteristics of the individual person, something that traditional techniques couldn’t do alone.
“The paternalistic time in medicine is really gone,” Yerram added.
The bottom line
With AI as an additional patient advocate, the cost of care will inevitably be easier to predict and manage – and it will help doctors best serve those who need cancer testing and care.
“AI is not going to replace the decision-making model. It’s going to help augment that discussion,” Yerram said. “I am very excited about the use of artificial intelligence to help be an ally, as an augment, as physicians.”
