Healthcare- “Dosed” With Artificial Intelligence

As you are aware, the 21st century is an era of technology.  Various sectors of business/economy are evolving at a rapid pace. It’s imperative that new trends need to be incorporated from time to time. One such innovative technology is ‘Artificial Intelligence’ (AI). We are not looking at the IT sector alone, but different sectors of business and economy are also using or trying to use AI.  McKinsey had inferred that between now and 2030, AI will create an estimated $15.7 trillion of GDP globally,  more than the current output of China and India combined. Business insider intelligence reported  that spending on  AI in medicine is projected to grow at an annual rate of 48% between 2017 and 2023. 

Let us look at how AI will be lending a hand in the healthcare sector.  

Medical AI systems/ Healthcare Management Systems  help in running administrative processes like admissions, accounting, payroll, medical billing, claims  sending, security and technical functioning. Much more can be easily and efficiently  done by custom machine learning. For instance, AI powered HMS can be custom programmed to alert  critical biochemistry values. This will help the concerned medical professionals to reduce the reaction time and better prognosis.  

Medical imaging has been positively influenced with the development and  incorporation of AI. Through deep learning, machines are able to build a wide array of algorithms. It  provides robust and powerful GPU computation for data modelling. By using existing data and analysis of the same AI can be trained to identify anatomical markers, provide and derive metrics and even  supply associated physiological values. In addition, it can improve the quality of images acquired, which helps professionals to diagnose efficiently and to come up with better treatment regimes.  Example: 4D/3D valve assessment in Trans-Thoracic Echocardiography. 

As we all know, nowadays, everything “goes to cloud”. Have you ever visited the MRD department at any hospital? A huge number of files are being created, accessed, stocked and again assessed finally to be dumped after a pre-set time period. Digitising patient data would declutter the entire process and can actually help in ease of accessing the medical files for insurance, reimbursements, medico-legal cases and even for research. 

Consider the  multitude of data from a single person and compare the amount of data that can be collected from the society, public  health department and epidemiology. Assessing huge medical data through AI allows us to reach valued meaning and inferences. This, in turn helps in  management, prevention, prediction of epidemic outbreak and pandemics. From planning public transport networks, storage and processing of waste, delivery of electricity, to initiatives in the field of environmental health to predictive analysis; only AI can lay the foundation. It may even help in preventing future pandemics.  

Collecting, storing and processing huge amounts of critical data is necessary for any city to offer improved transportation and accessibility, top notch healthcare facilities with predictive analysis, improved social services, and promote sustainability.

Due to the outbreak of pandemic and associated lockdown, people started looking for online services ranging from medical consultations to medicine delivery. AI is used to regulate the traffic and manage online consultations. Custom machine learning is used to  categorise patients by using speech recognition and preloaded datasets approved by medical  professional teams to find the right doctor for the right patient with minimalistic waiting time. The advancement of medical services has proven to be efficient to attract, and retain customers. With the explosion of data ranging from  COVID-19 test reports to smart watch data being used for studies, the scope of AI is going to  increase in the field of healthcare.

AI adoption is still at the initial stage in healthcare. AI cannot replace a trained medical professional but it’s expected to support, reduce the workload and increase the quality of service. In addition to  that, there would be new job opportunities created in the field of Medico IT, Bioinformatics and Bio-medical  devices as well. There will be a huge demand for people to train doctors and other medical professionals to  exploit this new trend to their advantage. AI assisted diagnostic/therapeutic/ research works tend to increase efficiency with less chances of error. Example: IVUS catheter used in Cath lab, Robotic Assistance in Neuro  and Paediatric Surgeries as well as Laparoscopic procedures for increased precision and safety. 

As stated by Rodney Brooks “Artificial Intelligence is a tool, not a threat.” It’s up to us that how and where we make use of this technology to reap the best results for the benefit of the individuals and the society as a whole. Healthcare is one such field where AI is not only assisting but radically transforming patient care and health operations.