AI has long ceased to be a thing of Sci-Fi movies and utopian/dystopian scenarios and has now become a powerful and widespread technology driving transformation across a diverse range of industries, such as manufacturing, finance, transportation and science. Unsurprisingly, The AI revolution of the past years has also reached the healthcare sector, bringing many important changes that benefit both healthcare professionals and patients.
As a technology that aims to mimic human intelligence and behaviour as closely as possible, AI encompasses many different models and methodologies, such as machine learning, natural language processing, deep learning, computer vision, and robotics. Therefore, the increasing adoption of AI in healthcare is expected to create numerous opportunities for progress and lead to significant improvements in this field.
This calls for a closer look at the AI applications in healthcare along with the advantages and challenges they bring about.
Improving diagnosis accuracy
Accurate and timely diagnosis is crucial to improving health outcomes in patients. Unfortunately, despite the significant advances in modern medicine, diagnostic errors remain a pretty common occurrence, being a leading cause of medical negligence claims, which you can read more about in the guide Medical Negligence: What It Is and How It Occurs.
Whether it’s an incorrect diagnosis, failure to diagnose, or delayed diagnosis, the consequences of medical misdiagnosis can be truly devastating for patients, often resulting in inappropriate or unnecessary treatments that can cause preexisting conditions to worsen or even lead to the development of new medical issues.
While faulty systems and the lack of standardized diagnostic processes are among the contributing factors, human error remains the main cause of medical misdiagnosis. Heavy workloads, time constraints, the fragmentation of healthcare, cognitive biases, and a lack of competence are some of the reasons why doctors are prone to making errors.
AI tools can address many of these shortcomings by employing advanced algorithms that can analyse complex medical data, including patient history and data from various tests such as ECGs, X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans. Therefore, AI can do a lot of the heavy lifting and serve as a valuable assistant to doctors, providing them with key insights that allow them to identify anomalies early on and predict the evolution of different health conditions, ultimately improving diagnosis accuracy.
Creating personalized treatment plans
AI can also help doctors move away from the one-size-fits-all treatments that have been the norm until not so long ago and create personalised treatment plans that take into account individual factors such as medical records, genetic profiles, and other elements that can impact individuals’ health.
With the help of AI predictive analytics and machine learning models, doctors are able to determine how someone might respond to a certain procedure or drug therapy, so they can develop customised treatments or recommend interventions to minimise the likelihood of side effects and ensure patients receive the best possible care.
The shift toward personalised medicine is driving significant advancements in fields like oncology, cardiology, and neurodegenerative diseases, which wouldn’t have been possible without the integration of AI systems.
Advancing medical research and drug discovery
Medical research and drug discovery are extremely complex fields that involve the use of advanced technologies and time-consuming processes, as well as the investment of large sums of money, so biotechnology companies face a lot of hurdles when trying to test and develop new drugs. It’s estimated that clinical trials last, on average, 9 years and incur expenses of approximately $1.3B, and after all the hard work and costs, there is no guarantee that the drugs undergoing testing will ever make it to the market.
Fortunately, AI tools can bring notable improvements in this area as well. With its ability to analyse vast data sets, facilitate patient recruitment in clinical trials, and manage various intricate workflows at the same time, AI can streamline every stage of the drug discovery process, reducing the time and the costs of developing new medicines.
Streamlining administrative tasks
Healthcare organisations are swamped with large volumes of data coming from various sources and being stored across multiple data points. This can make it difficult for healthcare professionals to manage data efficiently and find the information they require, which can lead to cumbersome processes and missed opportunities.
On top of that, the system is also crippled by excessive bureaucracy, which hampers the delivery of essential healthcare services to patients. As a result, medical practitioners often find themselves torn between focusing on treating patients and trying to find workarounds to solve system inefficiencies.
AI provides the perfect solution for all these challenges, as it can be used to process information and automate repetitive administrative tasks such as billing and scheduling appointments, sending reminders, collecting patient information, updating medical records, etc.
Additionally, AI-powered chatbots and telemedicine solutions can help improve patient engagement and facilitate access to healthcare services for people in remote areas, ensuring more efficient healthcare services and enhancing patient experiences.
Enhancing surgical precision
AI technology has also intersected with medical robotics, ushering a new era of innovation in medicine characterised by unprecedented precision and superior patient care. The trend of integrating AI systems into robotic surgeries combines human expertise with the accuracy of machine intelligence and can make both minimally invasive procedures and complex interventions safer for patients.
In recent years, we’ve seen numerous advances in this area, from AI-powered telesurgery to autonomous surgical robots and personalised surgical plans that were once distant concepts. These innovations can lead to less invasive procedures, expedite recovery times, and reduce healthcare costs.
Like many other industries and sectors, healthcare has also been touched by the magical AI wand, which has resulted in significant developments, from better diagnosis accuracy to optimised drug discovery processes, more efficient administrative operations, and increased surgical precision, so we can only imagine what other improvements this revolutionary technology will bring in the future.
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