Artificial Intelligence in the Healthcare Industry
AI has transformed many areas, and the field of medicine is no exception. Its use in healthcare can greatly improve patient recovery, refine operations, and stimulate medical research.
In this article, we’ll look at the use of AI in healthcare, its advantages, use cases, and the future of artificial intelligence in healthcare.
The Rise of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
The healthcare industry has seen a big increase in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI’s rise in medicine is driven by its ability to improve diagnostics, streamline operations, and offer personalized treatments.
AI has become highly skilled at analyzing vast medical data, especially with complex medical images. Moreover, AI has automated healthcare tasks and allowed professionals to focus on patient care. Finally, AI has sped up drug discovery and greatly reduced research costs.
In summary, AI isn’t a passing trend. It’s a powerful force shaping the future of healthcare, bringing new tools and inventions to patients and medical experts.
The Benefits Of AI in Healthcare
Artificial intelligence implies the ability of software to learn — just like people do — and to use all the received information for making decisions and performing actions. Let’s see what benefits it brings to the healthcare industry.
AI for Medical Diagnosis
One of the main medical problems is misdiagnosis, which steals precious time from curing real diseases and can make things worse by the wrong treatment.
After being trained on thousands and millions of detailed medical records and images, AI can help diagnose quickly and accurately, reducing the number of mistakes and saving time for doctors and patients.
A solution like this has already been developed by Google’s DeepMind, UCL, and Moorfields Eye Hospital. It is used for identifying a wide range of eye diseases by analyzing 3D scans as well as for advising an appropriate treatment scheme.
Treatment Schemes
As mentioned above, well-trained AI can find the best possible treatment. It takes into account all the significant characteristics of the patient’s state, including age, lifestyle, the results of medical research, and previous treatment experience.
Then, it matches this information with its knowledge about the effect of different medicines and comes up with recommendations that are more likely to eliminate the health problem in a smoother and faster way.
Operational Assistance
AI enhances surgical accuracy and improves the results of operations by modeling detailed schemes of the body parts or organs that are meant to undergo an intervention.
Having accurate images of the location and the structure of arteries or a tumor, the surgeon can better plan the operation as well as refer to them in the process.
Available Follow-Ups
One more challenge AI copes with is the inability of doctors and nurses to provide patients with a proper follow-up after the operation or during the treatment.
Since such a type of medical care requires communication with the practitioners and might require extra expenses, not everyone can afford it due to the remote places of living and being on a budget.
With the help of wearable devices, AI-based medical apps can monitor and analyze the patient’s condition in order to recommend medicines, activities, and examinations.
Predictive Analytics
In conjunction with IoT and wearable devices, AI can also detect symptoms of upcoming attacks, strokes, and exacerbations and warn the person about the danger.
When it comes to elderly people or those with serious diseases, the apps can warn not only the patient but also the doctors and relatives so that the required help can come as fast as possible, as sometimes each second matters.
Powering Science and Drug Production
AI saves time and money spent on searching for treatments and other research. It uses all the provided data (such as the results of previous research) and analyzes it to deliver the best possible result much faster than scientists would do.
Administrative Assistance
Maintaining the relevance of the health records and filling in other documents wastes too much of doctors’ time and reduces their motivation. AI can help to minimize this exhausting administrative work using NLP (natural language processing).
This technology listens to human speech and automatically translates it into text. So, the documents can be filled in on their own and only checked by a human later. In some time, when the technology is improved, there will be no need for additional actions at all.
Cyber Security
Clinics and hospitals have to ensure the strongest security of their databases in order to guarantee the confidentiality of patients’ sensitive information.
And it is another issue AI can help with. It analyzes the system and the suspicious actions of those trying to interact with the system so that all the potential risks and hazards can be predicted and eliminated.
Use Cases and Success Stories of AI in Healthcare
Artificial intelligence in healthcare has produced impressive real-life success stories, demonstrating its significant role in changing patient care and medical practices. Let’s examine some of these compelling examples.
IBM Watson for Oncology
IBM Watson, a pioneering AI system, has made a significant impact in the area of oncology. By analyzing extensive databases of medical research and patient data, Watson provides oncologists with treatment recommendations.
This AI helps doctors make better, personalized decisions, leading to more successful cancer treatments and better patient outcomes.
Google Health’s DeepMind
DeepMind, an AI subsidiary of Google, has focused on predicting patient deterioration within hospital settings. By continually monitoring and analyzing patient data, DeepMind’s AI technology can alert medical staff to potential issues before they become critical.
Siemens Healthineers’ AI-Rad Companion
Siemens Healthineers has developed the AI-Rad Companion, a tool designed to assist radiologists in interpreting medical images. This AI technology can detect abnormalities, provide diagnostic support, and reduce the time required for image analysis.
PathAI for Pathology
PathAI is transforming the field of pathology with its AI-driven solutions. It streamlines the analysis of pathology slides, helping pathologists detect diseases and anomalies swiftly and more accurately. This technology not only speeds up diagnoses but also ensures consistency in results across different settings.
Aidoc for Radiology
Aidoc is an AI radiology platform that quickly spots issues in medical images, like CT scans. It helps radiologists focus on critical cases and speed up patient care by flagging potential problems. This tech can cut down diagnosis delays and enhance patient results, especially in emergency cases.
The Future of AI in Medicine
The future of AI in medicine is full of promise and offers numerous ways to change and modernize healthcare.
Genomic Medicine
AI’s role in genomic medicine is expected to grow significantly. Being able to analyze and interpret large genomic datasets, AI can deliver highly personalized treatment plans based on an individual’s genetic profile.
Due to this tailored approach, healthcare providers can optimize treatment strategies for genetic conditions, cancer, and lots of other diseases.
Telemedicine and Remote Care
Telemedicine and remote patient care are advancing fast, with AI leading the way. AI-powered telemedicine will get smarter, giving patients quality medical services from the comfort of their homes.
Additionally, AI will provide ongoing remote monitoring for chronic patients so doctors can act correspondingly if needed.
Predictive Analytics
AI-driven predictive analytics will be crucial in the future of healthcare. Complex algorithms can predict disease outbreaks, patient admissions, and resource requirements, making it easier to plan and manage ahead of time.
This ability is extremely valuable for healthcare organizations and governments that need to distribute resources, respond to health emergencies, and prepare overall healthcare strategies.
Drug Discovery and Development
AI will continue to reshape the pharmaceutical industry by accelerating drug discovery and development. AI-driven approaches can quickly analyze vast datasets to identify suitable drug components, predict their safety and efficacy, and even simulate clinical trials.
AI-Enhanced Robotic Surgery
Robot-assisted surgery, with AI integration, will become more prevalent in the future. Surgeons will benefit from AI-driven tools that offer real-time data analysis, enhanced precision, and decision support during procedures.
This fusion of AI and robotic surgery will likely reduce surgical errors, shorten recovery times, and expand the range of procedures that can be performed without human supervision.
Digital Health Assistants
The emergence of digital health assistants powered by AI will provide patients with personalized healthcare information and support. These assistants will offer medication adherence and lifestyle management guidance and answer any medical queries. Thus, patients can take charge of their health and ensure better well-being.
The Bottom Line
Within healthcare and pharmaceutical development services, AI has become a life-saving and world-changing tool capable of preventing irreparable consequences, simplifying doctors’ routine, improving patients’ care, and saving time and money for research and medical companies.
At SCAND, we believe that there are many more opportunities to change the industries and world with the help of our AI development services. If you are ready to explore them, contact us to get an enthusiastic, reliable, and skilled partner.