Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare: The Future Lies in Machines
AI Healthcare is a buzzword in today’s world. However, many people still do not know what it actually is. They might have heard about Artificial intelligence, computer-assisted intelligence and so on. But most of them are not aware that the term ‘artificial intelligence’ actually means an approach to solve various problems by making use of complex mathematical algorithm. Therefore, the need to understand the need for artificial intelligence and its impact on modern healthcare sector is important.
The recent rapid growth in the AI Healthcare industry also supports this notion. Given the increasing demand and high supply of medical practitioners in the future, considering the high demand & supply of healthcare professionals today, this growth is indeed essential for the healthcare sector. AI can play a pivotal role in narrowing down the gap between supply and demand. It can do this by collecting and organizing data from various sources and formulating smart solutions based on the data. Deep Learning is one such method, which has made significant contributions to the field of AI Healthcare.
The success of these methods lies in the fact that they make use of large-scale data sets which are very complex. These sets are typically comprised of large volumes of patient data along with various other kinds of inputs like medical images and medical codes which are analyzed via deep neural networks. Such networks are created by using a set of pre-trained computer software called artificial intelligent (ART) or artificial neural network (ANN). These networks are typically composed of large numbers of computer processors that are connected together through a web-based network or a data center. Since the whole process involves large amounts of data and is very time consuming, the help of professionals is required for this.
These professionals are the ones who help in providing guidance on the training of artificial intelligence softwares to programmers who need to use them for solving a specific problem in healthcare. The main objective here is to provide healthcare providers with useful information which can be used to make important decisions for a particular patient. This can be done by gathering and organizing large amounts of input data. The use of large amounts of input data is one of the major advantages of deep learning and intelligence technologies like artificial intelligence. This way, it becomes easier for the healthcare providers to deal with complex inputs and data.
However, as mentioned earlier, the effectiveness of such methods depends upon how effectively they are able to filter and sort the relevant data. In this case, the accuracy rate of such programs often turns out to be quite low compared to the quality of results achieved by experts. Healthcare industry is finding more usage of deep learning algorithms in their work. In this regard, healthcare experts are working hard to train such machines to work according to certain specifications provided by the healthcare institutes. The recent successes of these algorithms have also provided a boost to the artificial intelligence research community. This has made it possible for deep learning to reach new frontiers in the field of healthcare.
Moreover, there is another aspect that needs to be considered when talking about artificial intelligence – the issue of privacy. EMR software used in hospitals automatically collect information like the demographic records of every individual who visits the hospital. These details are collected in the context of an EMR system, which is then transmitted to the central data warehouse of the company. In other words, EHR or electronic health records are not private. But the recent development in medical wearable technology is aimed at providing healthcare companies with the ability to monitor and collect the electronic health records of their clients while keeping them confidential.
The other huge advantage of using artificial intelligence for advanced healthcare applications is that it helps in drug development. When an effective solution is developed, the process gets simplified. Also, the cost of drug development gets reduced significantly. It is due to all these reasons that several pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are using such techniques for developing new medicines. Hence, it is clear that the future of medical science lies in the hands of artificially intelligent machines.
Since the progress of computer algorithms is improving day by day, the accuracy level of such solutions improves as well. Hence, doctors can trust such devices more and rely on them more. And most importantly, healthcare organizations need not invest in expensive healthcare technologies. As long as the quality of the algorithms is high, they can use them for all kinds of medical imaging and drug development processes, including pre-clinical research, clinical trials, healthcare systems, EMR software and more. Thus, we can say that AI healthcare is a more efficient, safe and affordable way of providing healthcare services.