Exploring the Challenges and Opportunities of Implementing artificial intelligence in healthcare settings in Nepal: A literature review.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has shown effectiveness in various industries, particularly within healthcare sectors. In Nepal, there are limited insights on existing studies regarding technical, financial, human resources, ethical and privacy related challenges of AI in the health sector, and this is the gap our study aims to fulfill. Our study aimed to synthesize empirical studies on the challenges and opportunities of using AI by conducting a systematic literature review. We retained 33 articles published between 2010 and 2023 in the PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct and CIHANIL databases. Most of the articles reviewed indicated that there are several challenges related to AI administration into healthcare in Nepal, however there are also an opportunity associated with this relating to cost-effectiveness of the services, increased access to specialized health services, teamwork and decision makings, diagnosis and patient monitoring, and telemedicine. However, findings show that use of AI in healthcare additionally faces several challenges including technical, geographical, economic, ethical and privacy, and human resource related challenges. Our findings recommend that AI has the potential to transform healthcare and while addressing these challenges is important to fully utilize its services especially in rural Nepal.