Artificial intelligence in healthcare

It’s no secret that healthcare costs are rising, and that medical errors are a significant problem in the US. But how do you address these issues when they seem so far out of reach? Artificial intelligence in healthcare is going to change the game and bring down costs and increase quality of care for everyone. And we can't wait! For more on how AI will impact your industry, see this article.

1. How artificial intelligence in healthcare is going to change the game

Whether it’s Google Deepmind’s AlphaGo beating the world’s best Go player, or IBM’s Watson trouncing Jeopardy champions, artificial intelligence is changing the world. AI is now being used in many different industries, including healthcare.Here, we look at how AI is coming into healthcare and how AI is going to revolutionize the way healthcare is delivered in the future.

WHY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS IMPORTANT TO HEALTHCARE

Artificial intelligence is already being used to improve the accuracy of medical diagnosis. For example, the Mayo Clinic says that a significant quality improvement in the accuracy of its medical diagnostics algorithm can be attributed to the inclusion of a patient’s symptom histories into its models. A medication can be personalized to better diagnose, for example, cluster headaches or sleep apnea. This a form of getting a more accurate diagnosis for the patient.

According to the Mayo Clinic, 97 percent of medical problems could be avoided with proper diagnosis by using AI. This includes things such as incorrect blood pressure measurements, making the decision to treat an infection, and helping to identify cancer before symptoms develop. In addition to saving lives, AI will lead to a significant reduction in unnecessary medical procedures and improve patient care.

Artificial intelligence in healthcare has the potential to revolutionize the way healthcare is delivered. With so much at stake, how can brands leverage AI ensure they’re using the right technology? The answer lies in how healthcare is defined today. It’s not about diagnosing illnesses — that’s done by physicians. But much like personal assistants, AI is about helping the patient get the right treatment — this in turn saving lives. For example, a person with sleep apnea may have specific health concerns because they have a higher risk of heart disease or stroke. It’s up the healthcare provider to make the determination as to how best to treat these problems.

2. AI is already used for diagnosis, but it’s not perfect yet.

Artificial intelligence is already being used by doctors to help them diagnose patients faster and more accurately, but it’s not perfect yet. In some cases, AI may even hinder a doctor’s diagnostic ability if it doesn’t have a complete picture of a patient’s medical history.The solution

Google is trying to remove the technological gap between doctors and patients by creating a hospital bot for various datacenters from Mountain View, CA. At the same time, they're also working on an “advanced AI” tool that can analyze patient information and make treatment recommendations.

Why? The goal is to save lives, and the success of both bots and the new technology depends on achieving a better understanding of patients’ medical histories. These technologies would be required for accurate diagnosis of diseases and provide more personalized treatments.

The world of healthcare is always changing, yet the methods doctors are using are also constantly adapting and evolving to improve quality and save lives. It’s constantly changing and evolving. If our current methods of healthcare go away and are replaced by AI, it might cost a bit more in the short run, but it will bring a better quality of life to everyone. The key is to stay on top of current trends so you can stay current on new technology to ensure you are staying ahead of the game.

How to stay current with AI

As practitioners in the healthcare space know, it’s exceptionally challenging to stay up to date on everything going on in the industry. There are too many changes day-to-day to know what’s really important and keep up with it all. If you’re an active user of healthcare tools, you probably want to get up to speed before it’s too late.

The good news is that with technology constantly changing, it’s always important to stay educated. Thankfully, we can use some smart planning to stay up-to-date on emerging developments and the hottest industry trends as they relate to healthcare.

3. How AI in healthcare will affect you and your patients

Artificial intelligence is becoming more and more prevalent in the healthcare industry, and it’s changing the way that doctors can diagnose and treat patients. AI can help doctors interpret medical data and come up with better diagnoses, prescribe the right treatments, and monitor patient health.Doctors still need to diagnose patients, but the changes coming down the pipeline are increasing the number of cases that are diagnosed and treated accurately.

While only a fraction of healthcare patients have a condition that’s actually irrefutable. The same technology that can save Livesaving today could result in anybody having access to potentially life-saving medical results which might take minutes or even seconds to diagnose with little or no prior information. If you know someone who is currently uninsured, and you wonder why the cost of healthcare is so out of reach, putting them on a government-sponsored form of healthcare may be the next step for the medical advancements we all crave.

How do machine-learned algorithms and artificial intelligence help predict and improve treatment decisions? In this day and age, AI has many practical applications and new algorithms can be trained on huge sets of data to identify patterns and help develop treatments for future patients. For example, look at the evolution of cancer detection over the past few years. Computers were initially trained to spot the telltale signs of a possible tumor, but as we saw more and more cancer patients come forward for treatment, AI developed a certain ability to attribute severity to an individual chemical test or radiograph. All with little or no human intervention needed!

These advances have helped decrease bad outcomes, and despite incredible technological leaps, human beings have been required once again to intervene in very high-risk scenarios. For a more in depth look at how advanced AI is impacting on medicine, check out the TED talk below.

How can you take advantage of the technology and how can you ensure that your organization understands how these doctor-specific changes could improve patient care and service?.

4. What is machine learning, and how can it be used in medicine?

Machine learning is a branch of computer science that uses statistical techniques to give computers the ability to “learn” with data, without being explicitly programmed. It is basically a subset of artificial intelligence. In the medical world, machine learning is a tool for making fast, accurate predictions based on a large dataset.The aim with machine learning is to find new ways to reduce healthcare costs, so that more people will be able to access life-saving treatments, prevent infections, and ultimately save lives. How is machine learning going to change medicine? To find out, we spoke to Adam Gower, MD, the Vice President of Research and Development at STAT.How is machine learning working in the healthcare industry?The accuracy of machine learning technologies is key to making fast and accurate predictions. STAT’s (Statistical Solutions to Address Sensitivity Issues) algorithm works to give the best summary estimate of the current healthcare situation to date based on a large dataset. One of the key ways machine learning can supplement traditional methods for making predictions is to incorporate the additivity of the parameter, aka the uncertainty surrounding a parameter, and uncertainty of the outcome, aka the true value of the parameter. Additivity is just the uncertainty around the outcome, how close the healthcare parameter is to the true value of the parameter. Uncertainty of the outcome is the degree of uncertainty around the outcome. This is essential when making predictions; for example, the more uncertain an outcome (like colective inflation), the better. When we work with outcomes that are uncertain, we often perform several iterations and tests on the same dataset over time to try and get a better estimation of the true value of the parameter. Finally, and most importantly, the outcome is connected to well-defined parameters that will avoid a scenario like the one shown below: Image source Here, there are several uncertainties around the actual value of the parameters. In this case, two things are known: the actual maximum length of stay in theatre, and the actual drug regimen to treat infection.

5. How will doctors use AI with patients?

AI can be used to help doctors with diagnosing patients and helping them choose the most effective treatment. AI can also be used to help patients become more proactive with their health and to seek care sooner. For example, if you have a high risk of heart disease, AI can send you text message reminders to go see your doctor.

How will AI impact healthcare?Healthcare seems like a geeky subject. When you hear the words “tech,” your brain does not think “cool technology.” It thinks “healthcare.” Healthcare in 2020 is cool! No longer do we click through to a website and leave without anything to show for a visit. We can get an entire set of information and services delivered securely and immediately to our devices without leaving the comfort of our homes.

Being an AI directly impacts the healthcare industry. AI is the key to creating an integrated healthcare system that is effective, cost-efficient, and welcomes technology and innovation. AI will help streamline the path to preventative care and improve the patient experience. This path to preventative care begins at the front door, where patients can get predicted medication dosages, as well as updated patient information in an app or on the websites of participating healthcare organizations.

Beyond the front door, AI helps local hospitals, clinics, and doctors deliver personalized care. The move to AI requires companies to design informational, expert-based content to meet the needs of their target audience. These content development partnerships will take place online with AI and will help hospitals become hubs for healing that helps all patients thrive. In summary, AI can help change the way you interact with healthcare, allowing you to get the most out of your visit, and all patients will benefit from AI, too.

Which industries are likely to see the most changes?Almost all healthcare institutions have installed various levels of technology to monitor and collect patients’ data. As this invasive technology becomes more prevalent, we can expect healthcare organizations to institute new technology in a bid to streamline operations and decrease costs and improve the quality of their patient experience.