Robotic process automation in healthcare-a review

Abstract

Robotic process automation (or RPA) is an emerging form of business process automation technology based on the notion of software robots or artificial intelligence (AI) workers.1 RPA is software based automation approach which automates the business processes by understanding the existing processes & practices. In essence, it is software which mimics the virtual human workforce and performs the tasks & activities which are repetitive in nature reducing the involvement of human in the process. Today the business world is extremely competitive and everyone wants to be ahead of its competitor for gaining the advantage. Hence, the RPA technology is proving to be effective in increasing profitability, efficiency of the business houses when certain recurrent processes are automated. This type of automation help the human employees to focus on more critical tasks, be more innovative and devote time to enhance their knowledge & skills in the domain. Planning, Implementation and Monitoring & Evaluation are the three major phases of any RPS project. RPA is considered to be a significant technological evolution of this technique in the sense that new software platforms are emerging which are sufficiently mature, resilient, scalable and reliable to make this approach viable for use in large enterprises.2 Researchers opine that RPA will usher in a new wave of productivity & efficiency gains in the global workforce once the technology becomes more matured and stable in the coming decade or so.3 RPA is proving to be the technology of future and its goal is to provide a sustainable solution that reduces costs and delivery time, improves quality, speed and operational efficiency of a business process.