Artificial Intelligence & Its Medical Impact
Written By: Helena Xu
What can AI do for the medical field?
At the thought of using artificial intelligence in medical fields, one might imagine robots and machines whizzing through hospitals in place of doctors and nurses. However, this concept that we all form in our minds, is simply an interpretation that does not accurately reflect upon the true uses of AI in today’s day and age. In fact, most of the impact that AI brings forth in the medical field is actually shown through different softwares and ample data sets that contain information which works towards saving someone’s life. At our current advancement, AI will not be replacing physical doctors and medical careers anytime soon, but rather AI is used as a tool such as finding different treatment methods, providing scans and tests, as well as calculating survival rates and interconnected health conditions that might align with a patient’s illness and side effects.
How does a medical AI know what to do?
Just as doctors are trained during a long process of learning and practicing, AI machines also undergo many similar steps in order to learn from their mistakes and to be able to aid doctors in treating patients. Through machine learning, algorithms, and new computing power, today’s AI is able to accurately detect, analyze, and even make predictions for patients and various health outcomes. However, most of the tasks that AI machines perform do require the help of human intelligence such as speech recognition and decision making. Ultimately, AI does need human support to an extent, but are also able to independently and sometimes even outperform humans in tasks that are more automated and repetitive.
Examples of AI and its uses…
Although the use of AI is still in its startup phase, there are many different clinical trials and testings in which they are able to help doctors and patients alike. In the paragraphs below, The World of Devs will be introducing a few healthcare innovations that AI plays an important part in, as well as further research and news.
Surgical Performance of AI
An oncoming practice of using AI in surgical performance and procedures is making its way in helping doctors to become more efficient in complex surgeries that can take up to 14 hours. In addition, through the use of AI in surgeries, they are able to reduce variations and chances of mistakes such as providing 3-dimensional magnification and to increase the surgeons’ motor skills for more precise cuts, removing, and stitching. In AI controlled robots and machines, we are able to reduce outcome and outlier variability, as well as use them to measure surgeon performance in factors like instrument position, pressure applied, and to maintain and monitor levels of blood loss. As AI assisted surgeries are considered minimally invasive, many surgeons use them in operations such as eye surgery, or for example, cardiothoracic surgeons use the miniature robot, Heartlander, which assists the surgeons in mapping and therapy over the surface of the heart.
AI in Primary Care Triage
A project that is currently in its development stage includes researchers that are working towards developing an AI system to support general practitioners and triage requests for appointments. If you haven’t been to the clinic or hospital lately, much of the time spent there is usually waiting for service and it is estimated that over a quarter of general practitioner appointments could have been dealt with in an alternative way, rather than keeping patients waiting. This means that through AI services, these machines are able to lend a hand in jobs similar to medical receptionists, in which they are able to efficiently and accurately direct patients to the right specialist or clinician 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Although this tool and system is still under development, it is hoped that in the future the AI system is able to also be integrated into hospital and clinic websites and medical records, which can directly input patient information and triage at the beginning of a patient’s care pathway.
AI Image Analysis
The healthcare workers who commonly analyze, assess, and interpret medical images and scans are commonly known as radiologists. However, with the new development of AI machines that utilise input algorithms, these machines are being created to be able to analyze 3D scans up to 1000 times faster than the average human practitioner can today. This efficiency can greatly help doctors to aid their patients faster, and researchers are also working towards creating the next generation of radiology tools that do not rely on tissue samples. Another addition to the use of AI in medical image analysis also means that these algorithms can be implemented and support rural areas that may not have sufficient access to healthcare providers, or patients can simply upload photos from their own cameras to send in pictures and receive appropriate treatment.
Hopefully by the end of this article you have learned a little more of the many uses that AI machines and AI learning are providing towards our medical field. The AI field is constantly growing and evolving, and we hope that this new form of technology is able to help our world and to provide efficient and accurate access to all those in need!
