The speedy incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the healthcare industry relies on the decisions that we now take in the future treatment of our patients.
Demographic disparities in healthcare persist around the world and the research community continues to detect the effect of medical impairments on multiple patient groups.
Clinically expanding AI programs in response to the Covid 19 pandemic.
AI gives all disciplines an incentive and represents their effect on society and the stakes of medicine cannot be higher.
There are currently efforts in several regions to integrate AI into every aspect of medicine, beyond most visible projects and to aid in the areas of health-care delivery, disease prevention, and diagnosis, with their end goals being the improvement of human life.
“Many countries are ill-prepared to address new emerging diseases such as COVID-19 in addition to the existing burden of infectious diseases and the ever-increasing tide of chronic diseases. Digital technology and AI are essential enablers to re-engineer health systems,”
– Ann Aerts, head of the Novartis Foundation and co-chair of the Broadband Commission Working Group on Digital and AI in Health.
In every aspect of the crisis response COVID-19, AI technologies and resources today play a key role:
- Virus understanding and accelerating drug and care medical science
- Detect, diagnose and predict the progress of the virus
- Support to avoid or delay the spread of the virus by monitoring and recording contacts
- Health crisis response by customized knowledge and learning
- Recovery tracking and improvement of early warning instruments.
Politicians should promote the exchange of medically, molecular and scientific data and models on collaborative platforms to help AI researchers create efficient resources for the medical community to help encourage the use of AI in the crisis, and should ensure the access of researchers to the appropriate computer capabilities.
In order to speed up diagnoses of COVID-19 and improve potential patient care, The European Commission will invest in the use of artificial intelligence.
The instrument picks up images of some indication from CT obtained from patients attending a hospital (e.g. chest pain, tumor). These images are then analyzed to analyze the lesions of opacity and tissue density of the soiled glass, which is the main finding for pneumonia linked to COVID. Such warnings allow radiologists to give priority to the reading of suspected cases in order to identify and treat possible COVID-19 patients beforehand.
Moreover, the feature that compares previous and current CT images of the same person gives physicians a direct view of the disease’s progression, allowing them to deliver a better care plan for each particular patient.
Why are AI and healthcare such a perfect match?
Healthcare has always been just as much about the patient experience as the health of the patient. AI and medicine are powerful disciplines that impact the lives of all of us, which makes these emerging forces complement each other on an unprecedented level.
AI is going to impact healthcare in ways that healthcare professionals and patients are yet to anticipate, and the implications for each will likely result in positive health outcomes for individuals and society.
The same technology that can analyse images and predict the onset of multiple sclerosis, has the potential to detect food poisoning and reduce the incidence of foodborne diseases.
Some of the most promising AI approaches in healthcare can be found in Cancer Biology. The field of cancer research and data mining is extremely fast-moving and innovative. With the unprecedented progression of technology, it is already possible to analyse millions of cancer genomes in seconds.
Companies such as IBM and Google are now doing cutting edge research that will help in the diagnosis of certain diseases, such as diabetes and breast cancer. To make this a reality requires a technological partner that has the clinical background to match and the platform to implement AI.
The combination of these two companies is a fitting example of what the healthcare of tomorrow will look like, and could well see both of them adapting and thriving.
Read more: Can artificial intelligence transform higher education?
Why Now?
The combination of breakthroughs and rapid research in the field of AI is a global phenomenon, with some of the most exciting research taking place in the US.
For the first time, these research advancements are being combined with advancements in computing power, deep learning, and computing power to produce extremely powerful computers, which work alongside human experts to enable advanced therapies.
The rate of research and development in AI is growing at a rapid rate, making it one of the most promising investment fields in the next few decades.
The potential impact of AI in the future of medicine is vast. The impact of AI on the pharmaceutical industry is not yet clear, but with the ability to create new drugs that are more effective than existing ones without any serious side effects, the pharmaceutical industry will have no choice but to adapt, or be left behind. The pharmaceutical industry is investing heavily in AI, and you should too.
I hope that the growth in the use of artificial intelligence in medicine will lead to a decrease in illness and death in the future and, possibly, accelerate the search for a cure for Covid-19.