PMID- 34381531
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20210824
LR  - 20210824
IS  - 1937-8688 (Electronic)
VI  - 38
DP  - 2021
TI  - Task-sharing with artificial intelligence: a design hypothesis for an Emergency 
      Unit in sub-Saharan Africa.
PG  - 387
LID - 10.11604/pamj.2021.38.387.20557 [doi]
LID - 387
AB  - In sub-Saharan Africa, there is a significant unmet need for emergency care, with 
      a shortage of trained providers. One model to increase the number of providers is 
      to task-share: roles traditionally filled by clinicians are shared with lay 
      workers who have received task-specific training. Separately, there has been much 
      recent interest in the possible implications of artificial intelligence (AI) on 
      healthcare. This paper proposes that, by combining the task-sharing model with 
      AI, it is possible to design an Emergency Unit (EU) that shares the tasks 
      currently undertaken by physicians and nurses with lay providers, with the 
      activities of lay providers guided and supervised by AI. The proposed model would 
      free emergency care clinicians to focus on higher-acuity and complex cases while 
      AI-supervised routine care is provided by lay providers. The paper outlines the 
      model for such an implementation and considers the potential benefits to patient 
      care, as well as considering the risks, costs, effect on providers, and ethical 
      questions. The paper concludes that AI and healthcare workers can operate as a 
      team, with significant potential to augment human resources for health in 
      sub-Saharan Africa.
CI  - Copyright: Camillo Lamanna et al.
FAU - Lamanna, Camillo
AU  - Lamanna C
AD  - University of New South Wales, Kirby Institute, Wallace Wurth Building, 
      Kensington, New South Wales 2052, Sydney, Australia.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20210420
PL  - Uganda
TA  - Pan Afr Med J
JT  - The Pan African medical journal
JID - 101517926
SB  - IM
MH  - Africa South of the Sahara
MH  - *Artificial Intelligence
MH  - Delivery of Health Care/*organization & administration
MH  - Emergency Service, Hospital/*organization & administration
MH  - Health Personnel/*organization & administration
MH  - Humans
MH  - Nurses/organization & administration
MH  - Patient Care/methods
MH  - Physicians/organization & administration
PMC - PMC8325458
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Artificial intelligence
OT  - emergency unit design
OT  - task-sharing
COIS- The author declares no competing interests.
EDAT- 2021/08/13 06:00
MHDA- 2021/08/25 06:00
PMCR- 2021/04/20
CRDT- 2021/08/12 06:34
PHST- 2019/10/05 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2021/04/08 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2021/08/12 06:34 [entrez]
PHST- 2021/08/13 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2021/08/25 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2021/04/20 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - PAMJ-38-387 [pii]
AID - 10.11604/pamj.2021.38.387.20557 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Pan Afr Med J. 2021 Apr 20;38:387. doi: 10.11604/pamj.2021.38.387.20557. 
      eCollection 2021.