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Role of Artificial intelligence in Healthcare

Artificial Intelligence, or AI are still new buzz words to many of us. But according to the advancements in technology that are constantly occurring, they will become the part of society’s everyday conversation in years to come.

If you look at your phone you will find yourself inundated by fantastic AI apps like Siri, Google voice, AlphaGo, etc. — yet the medicine apps might be miniscule to non-existent.

Our health is the cornerstone of our life, yet we seem to take it for granted instead of monitor it on a regular basis. Google updates it algorithm, Apple constantly updates iTunes and we often update our computer and phones. But how many times do we update our diabetes monitoring device or our blood pressure monitoring set? We think of these things as products that hide away in our medicine cabinets and are crafted to just start working whenever we need them. Much like these instruments, we really only check on our health or utilize medical consulting when we need to – when something isn’t right. Why?

The answer may be that there is no such system yet which can forewarn us about our health or keep us updated. This is why the future of healthcare has the potential to be heavily dominated by Artificial Intelligence and predictive medicine.

Let’s take a look at some cases:
-  Did you know that most of the tests that the Doctors refer us are still the same as 10 or 20 years or even more years ago?

-  Did you know that not all blood tests can detect the onset of cancer? It is only when it has  started or progressed significantly that the tests can determine it.

- Even though Doctors have all the patient data yet the analysis and connecting the dots together in a 15 minute patient appointment is simply not possible! BTW, one of the biggest problems  physicians and clinicians have is too much patient information to sort through.

Challenges with Patient’s Data Today

Presently, there is a big gap between patient data and transfer of that specific data back to the patient.  Here are the three main issues that result from that gap:

·        Storage of data: In most cases it is unstructured and insights or outputs are difficult to share. Unstructured data is anything from our texts, emails, social media posts to our patient records.

·        Analytics: It is bit fuzzy as the logic still needs lot of work before it can be analyzed

·        Usage: This is curated to help with automated tasks like sending patient reminders for overdue vaccinations, blood work, or prescription renewal.

With the above and many more challenges in front of us, it is undeniable that Artificial Intelligence will help guarantee streamlined healthcare and awareness in the future.

  Present and Future of AI in Healthcare

AI is used in other sectors like finance and transportation yet the healthcare industry still has yet to formally utilize AI in a productive capacity. The reason for this is largely that healthcare data is extremely complex to work with. However, there may a solution to the issue - the answer lies in how the data is generated and stored. Researchers in the field of AI classify it into two main categories: Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP).

The ML, or deep learning data, contains information pertaining to imaging, age, gender, disease, gene expression, physical symptoms, medication etc.

The NLP consists of narrative text, summaries, notes etc. provided during physical examination or any other service provided by doctors or care staff.

But even with all its limitations, Artificial Intelligence is slowly starting to make an impact in medical imaging with IBM Watson being the trail blazer. Currently, Google DeepMind is working with UK’s National Health Service (NHS) by mining health records for faster health service, and Atomwise is a company that is exploring the frontiers of drug discovery using artificial intelligence and machine learning.

AI still has lot of obstacles to overcome before a smooth path to success can be forged. Data security, data sharing and job consumption are always the most important issues to address for anyone looking to solve any problem using AI. But despite all the limitations, AI will eventually bypass these challenges and will end up becoming an extremely integral part of our daily lives. Irrespective to the opinions, we have to acknowledge the fact that AI has arrived and we should be prepared to implement and embrace it.