On a standalone basis, healthcare can be a disruptive, innovative sector in its own right. However, it’s often viewed as a defensive destination. Artificial intelligence (AI) is widely viewed as a catalyst for ongoing healthcare innovation. And that relationship could signal opportunity with select exchange traded funds.
The WisdomTree Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Fund (WTAI ) should be part of that conversation. WTAI, which follows the WisdomTree Artificial Intelligence & Innovation Index, is primarily focused on companies that fit that bill as AI innovators. In theory, AI innovators shouldn’t be hard to come by given that this is an innovative technology. But WTAI’s index methodology safeguards against “AI pretenders,” ensuring investors get a pure play on this emerging technology.
That methodology and ensuing purity when considering the fast-developing opportunity set for AI as it pertains to healthcare. One point enhances that proposition and perhaps the long-term outlook for assets such as WTAI. Many market observers and medical experts see AI reducing intrusion and improving surgical outcomes.
AI Could Be Just What Surgeons Ordered
There is a credible long-term healthcare field in which WTAI member firms can make inroads. AI and healthcare are already intersecting when it comes to drug development. It helps biopharma companies reduce development costs and potentially bring new products to market faster.
That could be the foundation for AI’s healthcare allure while surgical applications could bring more investors to the party. Consider the findings of Dr. Chris Varghese at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland in a recently published report in Nature Medicine.
“There is much room for improvement of preoperative surgical care, encompassing areas of active surgical research such as diagnostics, risk prognostication, patient selection, operative optimization, and patient counseling—all aspects of the preoperative pathway of patients receiving surgery where AI has emerging capabilities,” according to the report.
AI could serve other preoperative functions. It could help doctors identify which procedures are appropriate for specific patients. Additionally, it could help in keeping high-risk candidates away from unneeded or overly risky surgeries.
Operating Room Experience Could Be Quantified Digitally
Obviously, what happens before surgery is important, but in what could further the allure of AI investing as a healthcare inroad, Varghese believes AI could be used collaboratively by surgical staff to improve outcomes or reduce risk during procedures.
“On the theme of surgical teamwork, multimodal digital inputs, including physiological inputs (for example, skin conductance and heart rate variability) for the identification of operative stress, anesthetic inputs (continuous pharmacological and vitals outputs), nursing team staffing inputs and equipment stock and availability inputs, are all routine elements of the operating room experience that could be quantified digitally and integrated into a digital pathway suitable for automation and optimization,” he observed.
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