The last few years since Covid-19 have accelerated the use of technology in medicine as technology which would have come at a much slower pace are now in use. Testing and research which could take years such as in vaccine production have seen milestones since the pandemic.
It is evident that technology can not be isolated from the advancement in healthcare and the benefits are immense.
Artificial Intelligence is an area which is fairly new to healthcare but gaining grounds with the potential of becoming the main form of health innovation as its uses cut across all aspects. From record keeping to diagnostics,surgery or robotics, Artificial intelligence will soon become inseparable from the practice of medicine.
What is AI?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a field of computer science that emphasizes the creation of intelligent machines that work and react like humans. AI has been around for decades, but recent breakthroughs in areas like machine learning, natural language processing and speech recognition have brought it to the forefront again.
Artificial intelligence has always been a part of our lives but in recent times, it has developed exponentially and its applications have grown at a rapid pace. With the advancements made in machine learning, deep learning and neural networks this field has grown into something much more than just another technology that we use everyday.
The first known use of AI was in 1956 when a computer beat human players at chess for the first time. Since then there have been many developments in this field with new breakthroughs being made every day.
Artificial Intelligence is a type of technology which can be defined as “intelligent machines that work and react like humans”. It is evident that technology can not be isolated from the advancement in healthcare and the benefits are immense.
AI has been used in many fields other than just gaming and has been incorporated into our daily lives by performing tasks such as image recognition, speech recognition and natural language processing etc..
Another area where AI has made significant headway is in medicine where it has been used to improve diagnosis accuracy during radiology exams by analyzing images using software algorithms which can detect abnormalities such as cancerous cells or tumors etc..
The technology has been around for decades and its impact on our lives has been enormous. AI is being used in almost every aspect of our lives including transportation, entertainment and even warfare.
Medicine is no exception to this trend as we are seeing more and more applications of AI in medicine every day.
Use of AI in Healthcare
AI was used in 1990s when Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov at chess. Then came IBM’s supercomputer Watson which beat human contestants on Jeopardy! in 2011, marking a significant milestone for AI research. Initially limited to playing games, Watson has now been used for medical diagnosis and treatment recommendations.
The use of artificial intelligence has been on the rise in recent times, particularly in healthcare. The reason behind this is that it provides us with a way to make sense of vast amounts of information which would be impossible for humans to do alone. It can help us to analyse medical data quickly and easily.
Watson has been trained with millions of pages of text from medical journals and textbooks so that it can understand questions posed in natural language and respond with evidence-based answers. It can also interpret images and video files, which helps doctors make more accurate diagnoses by reducing their reliance on subjective interpretations or hunches about what might be causing a patient’s symptoms. In addition, Watson has been trained to interpret x-rays
Potential of AI in Healthcare
The use of artificial intelligence in healthcare is still at a nascent stage with its potential to revolutionize healthcare. The future of AI in healthcare will be driven by its ability to solve practical problems in clinical settings. Some of these challenges include:
Data analysis: Big data analytics helps doctors make better decisions by providing them with actionable insights from their data sets.
Drug discovery: AI-based tools are used to mine through millions of compounds to identify new drugs or drug targets.
Patient record keeping: Using machine learning techniques, we can use computers to understand medical images such as X-rays or CT scans, read prescriptions and recognize vital signs such as blood pressure or pulse rate from an EKG reading taken by a nurse wearing a smartwatch.
Diagnostic systems: An AI system can go through millions of cases and look for patterns that may indicate a problem that has been missed by human doctors; this allows them
The benefits that it can bring to healthcare are immense and here are some ways in which it will change how we treat diseases:
1) Better Patient Engagement: AI can help doctors create more engaging patient experiences by using their skills at building rapport with patients. This will help doctors make better diagnoses faster as well as provide better overall care for patients by improving their ability to understand their needs and providing them with customized treatment plans based on their needs.
2) Better Patient Outcomes: AI can also be used to analyze data from past medical records and predict which treatments would work best for each individual patient based on their medical conditions
.
Many people believe that artificial intelligence will replace humans altogether but there are some who think otherwise. These people believe that AI will help us solve problems and make our lives easier by helping us make better decisions based on facts rather than gut feelings or emotions which can often lead us astray.
With all these benefits, what does this mean for medical practice? The answer is simple: it means that AI will change everything from how we diagnose patients to how we treat them, potentially reducing the risk of malpractice and litigation since diagnostic decisions are made from documented guidelines and latest research; from managing our records to how we communicate with each other; from how we do research to how we train young doctors in medical school…the list goes on!
