AI applications in medicine

There are numerous ways AI can positively impact the practice of medicine,
whether it's through speeding up the pace of research or helping clinicians make
better decisions. Here are some examples of how AI could be used:
AI in disease detection and diagnosis
Unlike humans, AI never needs to sleep. Machine learning models could be used to observe the
vital signs of patients receiving critical care and alert clinicians if certain risk factors increase.
While medical devices like heart monitors can track vital signs, AI can collect the data from
those devices and look for more complex conditions, such as sepsis. One IBM client has
developed a predictive AI model for premature babies that is 75% accurate in detecting severe
sepsis.
Personalized disease treatment
Precision medicine could become easier to support with virtual AI assistance. Because AI
models can learn and retain preferences, AI has the potential to provide customized real-time
recommendations to patients around the clock. Rather than having to repeat information with
a new person each time, a healthcare system could offer patients around-the-clock access to an
AI-powered virtual assistant that could answer questions based on the patient's medical
history, preferences and personal needs.
AI in medical imaging
AI is already playing a prominent role in medical imaging. Research has indicated that AI
powered by artificial neural networks can be just as effective as human radiologists at detecting
signs of breast cancer as well as other conditions. In addition to helping clinicians spot early
signs of disease, AI can also help make the staggering number of medical images that clinicians
have to keep track of more manageable by detecting vital pieces of a patient's history and
presenting the relevant images to them.
Clinical trial efficiency
A lot of time is spent during clinical trials assigning medical codes to patient outcomes and
updating the relevant datasets. AI can help speed this process up by providing a quicker and
more intelligent search for medical codes. Two IBM Watson Health clients recently found that
with AI, they could reduce their number of medical code searches by more than 70%.
Accelerated drug development
Drug discovery is often one of the longest and most costly parts of drug development. AI could
help reduce the costs of developing new medicines in primarily two ways: creating better drug
designs and finding promising new drug combinations. With AI, many of the big data challenges
facing the life sciences industry could be overcome.
Benefits of AI in medicine
Informed patient care
Integrating medical AI into clinician workflows can give providers valuable context while they're
making care decisions. A trained machine learning algorithm can help cut down on research
time by giving clinicians valuable search results with evidence-based insights about treatments
and procedures while the patient is still in the room with them.
Error reduction
There is some evidence that AI can help improve patient safety. A recent systemic review of 53
peer-reviewed studies examining the impact of AI on patient safety found that AI-powered
decision support tools can help improve error detection and drug management.
Reducing the costs of care
There are a lot of potential ways AI could reduce costs across the healthcare industry. Some of
the most promising opportunities include reducing medication errors, customized virtual health
assistance, fraud prevention, and supporting more efficient administrative and clinical
workflows.
Increasing doctor-patient engagement
Many patients think of questions outside of typical business hours. AI can help provide around-
the-clock support through chatbots that can answer basic questions and give patients resources
when their provider’s office isn’t open. AI could also potentially be used to triage questions and
flag information for further review, which could help alert providers to health changes that
need additional attention.
Providing contextual relevance
One major advantage of deep learning is that AI algorithms can use context to distinguish
between different types of information. For example, if a clinical note includes a list of a
patient's current medications along with a new medication their provider recommends, a well-
trained AI algorithm can use natural language processing to identify which medications belong
in the patient's medical history.
Source: https://www.ibm.com/topics/artificial-intelligence-medicine
 AI in Healthcare

The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare has been groundbreaking,

reshaping the way we diagnose, treat and monitor patients. This technology is drastically
improving healthcare research and outcomes by producing more accurate diagnoses
and enabling more personalized treatments. AI in healthcare’s ability to analyze vast
amounts of clinical documentation quickly helps medical professionals identify disease
markers and trends that would otherwise be overlooked. The potential applications of AI
and healthcare are broad and far-reaching, from scanning radiological images for early
detection to predicting outcomes from electronic health records. By leveraging artificial
intelligence in hospital settings and clinics, healthcare systems can become smarter,
faster, and more efficient in providing care to millions of people worldwide. Artificial
intelligence in healthcare is truly turning out to be the future – transforming how
patients receive quality care while mitigating costs for providers and improving health
outcomes.

It all began with IBM's Watson artificial intelligence system, which was developed to
answer questions accurately and quickly. Articles on artificial intelligence in healthcare
mention IBM’s launch of a healthcare-specific version of Watson in 2011 that focused on
natural language processing—the technology used to understand and interpret human
communication. Today, alongside IBM, other tech giants like Apple, Microsoft and
Amazon are increasingly investing in AI technologies for the healthcare sector.

The potential implications of artificial intelligence in healthcare are truly remarkable. AI

in healthcare is expected to play a major role in redefining the way we process
healthcare data, diagnose diseases, develop treatments and even prevent them
altogether. By using artificial intelligence in healthcare, medical professionals can make
more informed decisions based on more accurate information - saving time, reducing
costs and improving medical records management overall. From identifying new cancer
treatments to improving patient experiences, AI in healthcare promises to be a game
changer - leading the way towards a future where patients receive quality care and
treatment faster and more accurately than ever before.

Let’s take a look at a few of the different types of artificial intelligence and healthcare
industry benefits that can be derived from their use.
Machine Learning
Machine learning is one of the most common examples of artificial intelligence and
healthcare working together. It is a broad technique at the core of many approaches to
AI and healthcare technology and there are many versions of it.

Machine Learning has altered the healthcare system by enabling artificial intelligence to
be used in medical diagnosis and treatment. Machine learning algorithms can quickly
process large amounts of clinical documentation, identify patterns and make predictions
about medical outcomes with greater accuracy than ever before. From analyzing patient
records and medical imaging to discovering new therapies, the data science behind
machine learning is helping healthcare professionals improve their treatments and
reduce costs. By leveraging AI technologies like machine learning for tasks such as
disease diagnosis or drug discovery and development, doctors can more accurately
diagnose illnesses and customize treatments to individual patients’ needs. Furthermore,
using artificial intelligence in healthcare such as machine learning allows providers to
uncover previously unseen correlations in healthcare data between diseases or detect
subtle changes in vital signs that may indicate a potential problem. 

The most widespread utilization of traditional machine learning is precision medicine.

Being able to predict what treatment procedures are likely to be successful with patients
based on their make-up and the treatment framework is a huge leap forward for the
data science of many healthcare organizations. The majority of AI technology in
healthcare that uses machine learning and precision medicine applications require
medical images and clinical data for training, for which the end result is known. This is
known as supervised learning.

Artificial intelligence in healthcare that uses deep learning is also used for speech
recognition in the form of natural language processing. Features in deep learning
models typically have little meaning to human observers and therefore the model's
results may be challenging to delineate without proper interpretation. As deep learning
technology continues to advance, it will become increasingly important for healthcare
professionals to understand how deep learning technology works and how to effectively
use it in clinical settings.

Natural Language Processing

Natural language processing (NLP) is a form of artificial intelligence that enables
computers to interpret and use human language. This form of technology has
reshaped many fields, including the healthcare industry. In healthcare, NLP is
being used in a wide range of health data applications, such as improving patient
care through better diagnosis accuracy, streamlining clinical processes, and
providing more personalized services.

For example, NLP can be applied to medical records to accurately diagnose

illnesses by extracting useful information from health data. Additionally, it can be
used to identify relevant treatments and medications for each patient or even
predict potential health risks based on past health data. Furthermore, NLP also
provides clinicians with powerful tools for managing large amounts of complex
data – something which would normally take much longer to do manually.

Natural language processing is proving to be an invaluable tool in healthcare –

allowing medical professionals to use artificial intelligence to more accurately
diagnose illnesses and provide better personalized treatments for their patients.
This form of AI in healthcare is quickly becoming a must-have in the modern
healthcare industry and is likely to become even more sophisticated and be used
in a wider range of applications. 

Rule-based Expert Systems

Expert systems based on variations of ‘if-then’ rules were the prevalent
technology for AI in healthcare in the 80s and later periods. The use of artificial
intelligence in healthcare is widely used for clinical decision support to this day.
Many electronic health record systems (EHRs) currently make available a set of
rules with their software offerings.

Expert systems usually entail human experts and engineers to build an extensive
series of rules in a certain knowledge area. They function well up to a point and
are easy to follow and process. But as the number of rules grows too large,
usually exceeding several thousand, the rules can begin to conflict with each
other and fall apart. Also, if the knowledge area changes in a significant way,
changing the rules can be burdensome and laborious. Machine learning in
healthcare is slowly replacing rule-based systems with approaches based on
interpreting data using proprietary medical algorithms.
Diagnosis and Treatment
Applications
Diagnosis and treatment of disease has been at the core of artificial intelligence AI in
healthcare for the last 50 years. Early rule-based systems had potential to accurately
diagnose and treat disease, but were not totally accepted for clinical practice. They were
not significantly better at diagnosing than humans, and the integration was less than
ideal with clinician workflows and health record systems.

But whether rules-based or algorithmic, using artificial intelligence in healthcare for

diagnosis and treatment plans can often be difficult to marry with clinical workflows and
EHR systems. Integration issues into healthcare organizations has been a greater barrier
to widespread adoption of AI in healthcare when compared to the accuracy of
suggestions. Much of the AI and healthcare capabilities for diagnosis, treatment and
clinical trials from medical software vendors are standalone and address only a certain
area of care. Some EHR software vendors are beginning to build limited healthcare
analytics functions with AI into their product offerings, but are in the elementary stages.
To take full advantage of the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare using a stand
alone EHR system providers will either have to undertake substantial integration
projects themselves, or leverage the capabilities of third party vendors that have AI
capabilities and can integrate with their EHR.

Administrative Applications
Artificial Intelligence in healthcare is changing many of the administrative aspects of
medical care. By automating mundane tasks, such as data entry, claims processing and
appointment scheduling, using artificial intelligence in healthcare can free up time for
providers and healthcare organizations to focus on patient care and revenue cycle
management. Furthermore, artificial intelligence also has the potential to reduce human
error by providing a faster way to review health records, medical imaging, claims
processing and test results. With artificial intelligence giving medical professionals more
autonomy over their workflow process, they are able to provide better quality patient
care while maintaining budget efficiency. The ability of AI in healthcare to analyze the
medical history of a patient and deliver better and faster results is reshaping the way
healthcare providers deliver care, making it possible for them to devote more time and
resources to their patients. With artificial intelligence AI in healthcare leading the charge
in improving patient care, medical professionals can be confident that they can focus on
delivering quality care while also saving time and money with AI-powered administrative
tasks.

Ultimately, artificial intelligence in healthcare offers a refined way for healthcare

providers to deliver better and faster patient care. By automating mundane
administrative tasks, artificial intelligence can help medical professionals save time and
money while also giving them more autonomy over their workflow process.

Challenges for Artificial Intelligence

in Healthcare
As healthcare organizations increasingly invest in the use of artificial intelligence in
healthcare for a range of tasks, the challenges facing this technology must be addressed,
as there are many ethical and regulatory issues that may not apply elsewhere.

Some of the most pressing challenges include data privacy and security, patient safety
and accuracy, training algorithms to recognize patterns in medical data, integrating AI
with existing IT systems, gaining physician acceptance and trust, and ensuring
compliance with federal regulations. Data privacy is particularly important as AI systems
collect large amounts of personal health information which could be misused if not
handled correctly. Additionally, proper security measures must be put into place in order
to protect sensitive patient data from being exploited for malicious purposes.

Patient safety and accuracy are also important concerns when using AI in healthcare. AI
systems must be trained to recognize patterns in medical data, understand the
relationships between different diagnoses and treatments, and provide accurate
recommendations that are tailored to each individual patient. Furthermore, integrating
AI with existing IT systems can introduce additional complexity for medical providers as
it requires a deep understanding of how existing technology works in order to ensure
seamless operation.

Finally, gaining acceptance and trust from medical providers is critical for successful
adoption of AI in healthcare. Physicians need to feel confident that the AI system is
providing reliable advice and will not lead them astray. This means that transparency is
essential – physicians should have insight into how the AI system is making decisions so
they can be sure it is using valid, up-to-date medical research. Additionally, compliance
with federal regulations is a must to ensure that AI systems are being used ethically and
not putting patient safety at risk.
Looking Forward
As artificial intelligence in healthcare has grown in its capabilities, using it to improve
medical practices has become increasingly viable. With the development of AI-powered
medical tools and intelligent algorithms that are able to interpret large data sets, the
potential for using AI in healthcare is limitless. Deep learning AI can be used to help
detect diseases faster, provide personalized treatment plans and even automate certain
processes such as drug discovery or diagnostics. It also holds promise for improving
patient outcomes, increasing safety and reducing costs associated with healthcare
delivery. 

The future of using artificial intelligence in healthcare is undoubtedly bright and filled
with possibilities for further innovation. As we move forward into a more connected
digital world, using AI in the healthcare industry will become an invaluable asset that
could potentially reshape how doctors treat patients and deliver care. With such great
potential, it is clear that using artificial intelligence in healthcare holds the promise of a
future filled with advancements, improved health outcomes and better patient
experiences.

The greatest challenge to AI in healthcare is not whether the technologies will be capable
enough to be useful, but rather ensuring its adoption in daily clinical practice. In time,
medical professionals may migrate toward tasks that require unique human skills, tasks
that require the highest level of cognitive function. Perhaps the only healthcare
providers who will lose out on the full potential of AI in healthcare may be those who
refuse to work alongside it.

Source: https://www.foreseemed.com/artificial-intelligence-in-healthcare