There is no shortage of challenges facing healthcare systems in this country and around the world, but the spread of AI and other technological developments is still driving a broad range of improvements.

That’s one way of summing up a recent commentary by Tom McGuinness, President and CEO of GE Healthcare’s Imaging business, who points out that for all the struggles – limited access to care, unsustainable cost increases and caregiver fatigue – “healthcare today is becoming more personalized, digitally integrated and collaborative.”

The advances, McGuinness says, fall largely under the umbrella term “precision health,” which “done right and done at scale  . . .  delivers on healthcare’s triple aim: better quality care at a lower cost with increased access for patients around the world.”

According to McGuinness, one example of how AI is facilitating precision medicine GE’s recently released AI algorithm that detects “pneumothorax, or collapsed lungs, in chest X-rays with high accuracy. When a collapsed lung is not diagnosed quickly and accurately, it can be deadly. When a collapsed lung is identified, the clinical team — including frontline doctors and radiologists — is alerted to help diagnose and treat patient promptly.”

Solutions such as this X-ray AI app, says McGuinness, help make caregivers’ jobs easier and patients’ experiences better, and he notes that “last year, more than 100 start-ups were focused solely on healthcare AI, with the best ones integrating AI into existing devices and workflows seamlessly, even invisibly.”

In McGuinness’ view, the importance of precision health and the influx of AI platforms reinforces “the fact that healthcare’s future requires a team effort. Doctors, hospitals and health systems are asking for help solving big problems and they want more than just the latest short-term solution.”

To that end, innovators like GE Healthcare are partnering with “clinicians and other medtech companies to address hospitals’ and patients’ needs across the entire care pathway.”

In the end, says McGuinness, “improving the healthcare industry and experience requires equal parts promise and challenge. We are already making progress: connecting precision diagnostics, therapeutics and monitoring to generate insights for better patient outcomes; embracing AI to empower caregivers and improve the patient experience; and realizing that the best healthcare outcomes require teamwork.”