Bermuda’s healthcare landscape stands on the brink of transformation as artificial intelligence emerges as a dynamic driver of change.
The Bermuda Health Council, which serves as the eyes and ears of our health system, told us it is currently exploring how AI can be responsibly integrated into our health system.
Traditionally known as a regulatory body focused on ensuring compliance within Bermuda’s health system, the Health Council has taken on a far more proactive role in recent times.
It continually monitors global innovations to explore solutions that could be adapted and implemented on the island.
AI Directory of Services
The Bermuda Health Council is currently creating an AI-driven Directory of Services that will soon be available online to all island residents.
Once the directory is launched, individuals will be able to enter symptoms or statements regarding how they are feeling online; the AI will generate a corresponding list of available local health resources, to help people access the right sort of medical assistance when they need it most.
The data collected from these interactions will remain entirely anonymous and will not be linked to personal identifiers such as IP addresses.
However, this aggregated information can offer valuable insights into the health concerns of the local population, highlight gaps in available resources, and help guide strategies to improve healthcare access and outcomes for the entire community.
Other AI possibilities in Bermuda
- Processing and analysing data rapidly
AI can enhance the way we understand the health characteristics of Bermuda’s population and deliver services. AI-powered predictive analytics can assess individual risk by weighing up gender, family history, lifestyle and other factors. These insights can be used not only to support insurance underwriting but also to create a greater variety of coverage options.
- Identifying at-risk individuals
AI can help identify potential health issues at an early stage, before people become high-need patients. In a small community like Bermuda, this could allow for customised early intervention, which would ultimately lower costs and improve quality of life for everyone.
- Speeding up the process of insurance claims
Ensuring that insurance claims are assessed and reimbursed more quickly would reduce delays and improve efficiency.
- Covering gaps in the workforce
It is unlikely that we will ever have every last healthcare skill or qualification here, so it is essential that practical ways to cover gaps are developed wherever they exist. AI can play a critical supporting role.
It can analyse the qualifications of the existing workforce and identify areas where there are insufficient personnel with the skills that are currently needed. It can also greatly reduce the amount of time required to validate the qualifications of healthcare job applicants – potentially reducing a process that currently takes an average of 45 days to a mere 24 hours.
Vision for the future
A truly AI-powered health insurance system in Bermuda would be one where care is predictive rather than reactive; policies are fair and flexible; and insurers, providers and patients are connected through a secure, transparent system.
With the right safeguards, collaboration and commitment to equity, AI has the potential not only to modernise healthcare delivery and insurance in Bermuda – but to make it profoundly more human.
