You have an appointment with Doctor A.I.
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.
- 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.
3 comments:
Great article. Artificial intelligence is coming sooner than we expected. It already has a head start in the patient imaging industry.
Oh! Geez. I would still trust my human doctor over a robot
I work in the Telemedicine industry and can safely say that the business has been growing. May be not the speed it was projected but still growth has been there.
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