Artificial intelligence (AI) is rewriting the rulebook across countless, sectors but it’s perhaps the healthcare industry (and the billions of patients it serves) that may see the biggest long-term benefits. Already, AI is demonstrating its extensive capacity to support improved services and stronger patient outcomes.
What AI brings to the table is essentially the collective brains of the world’s leading medical professionals, working 24/7 and constantly learning. Not to mention capable of solving complex issues with superhuman speed and accuracy.
It offers hope for better diagnosis, personalised treatment plans, and even early detection of diseases – all tailored to each patient’s unique needs.
Examples of AI Technologies Being Used in Healthcare
Looking ahead, this evolving technology could lead to more effective treatments, more accurate diagnoses, and even new ways of delivering care.
But what specific areas of AI are already making their mark on the sector, while also showing the most potential for its future?
- Machine Learning: This can be thought of as a smart assistant that can learn from vast quantities of data. Machine learning can help doctors find patterns or trends buried in patients’ records, which may otherwise be overlooked. All paving the way for quicker and more accurate diagnoses for patients.
- Natural Language Processing: NLP is all about helping computers understand us when we speak or type. In healthcare, it’s playing a role in helping bridge the gaps between practitioners and computers, enabling the latter to understand the former more contextually.
- Rule-Based Expert Systems: These systems are like having a comprehensive medical encyclopaedia that can think on its own. They use present rules to mimic what a professional’s brain does when making a decision – useful for suggesting treatments or helping with diagnosing illnesses.
The Diverse Applications of AI in Healthcare
In terms of practical applications, the effects of AI can already be seen and felt across many areas of the healthcare sector. Though perhaps the five biggest shifts being fuelled by the rise of AI are as follows:
- Diagnosing Patients
AI systems can take an incredibly close look at images from X-rays and scans, picking up on details that could be missed by the human eye. This technology works alongside healthcare professionals to ensure quick and precisely pinpointed diagnoses while reducing the risk of human error.
- Transcribing Medical Documents
We’re rapidly heading into an era where manual typing and transcribing are outdated concepts. Automatic Speech Recognition turns a doctor’s spoken words into accurate and contextual text records, streamlining the way patients’ medical histories are captured and stored.
- Virtual Medical Assistants and Scheduling
Virtual medical assistants such as VMeDx is transforming appointment-setting with cutting-edge automated smart systems. They take care of reminders, organising calendars and more, so healthcare teams can focus more on patient care and less on the admin side of their jobs.
- Drug Discovery and Development
Thanks to AI, the journey to discovering new medicines is faster than ever. By making sense of enormous data piles, sophisticated software can spot promising drug possibilities and predict how well they might work, infinitely faster than a human research team.
- AI-assisted Robotic Surgery
On a more hands-on level, AI-powered robots are not only assisting surgeons, but also making surgery safer and recovery quicker for patients. A leap forward that has significantly cut down complications, robots are able to operate with the kind of pinpoint precision no human hand is capable of.
