What is AI in Medical Field?
The health problems in recent days are in an alarming situation globally due to so many national and international issues. To overcome such issues, the applications of AI in the medical field are creating their own place. Doctors and scientists are looking ahead to innovations using AI which can help them in taking care of their patients in a better way. Artificial Intelligence is likely to change absolutely the lifestyle of a human being in 2021.
We shall soon find transformation in our daily routines. Persons awake in the morning and before getting fresh, they rush to special electronic gadgets or can be even mobile phones to know about health data. The records on blood pressure, sugar level, heart functioning, brain oxygen level shall be readily available. Don’t get surprised if it’s automatically shared on social platforms like Facebook or Instagram and your relatives and friends could see it.
The future of AI in medicine shall be even more dominant than gadgets. Your doctor sends alerts on your heart-beat automatically and reschedules the medicine. Let us dive into little deep to know some interesting things.
APPLICATIONS OF AI IN MEDICAL FIELD
We will study some applications to understand the future scope of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
1. Ailment Diagnosis
Artificial Intelligence or to be more precise Machine Learning (a subset of AI) is very much helpful to detect and diagnose disease. ML algorithm can detect diseases like cancer, leukemia easily which are very difficult to identify by doctors at the initial stage. Google’s Algorithm can detect even Cancer. Research on algorithms done at Indiana University can detect cancer very accurately.
2. Personalized Treatment
Artificial Intelligence is now a brand platform in personalized treatment. AI algorithm is an expert tool that studies the past history of ailments of a person. This keeps the track record of the behavior of past diseases and also predicts the nature of present disease symptoms. Based on the analysis of past and present behavior of the disease, the algorithm can detect the most accurate disease. The doctors can fully rely on the result and thus can save time and money. They can now plan the right treatment for the patient.
3. Innovation and Research
AI now plays a vital role in research and development in medical science. AI is the first step in the innovation and research of new medicine or drug. Artificial Intelligence or ML can identify patterns in the raw material. This property of AI enables medical industries to use it in the initial process of drug discovery. The target of the scientists here is to develop precision medicine that is powered by unsupervised learning. Project Hanover developed by Microsoft is a famous example of this.
4. Robotic Surgery
Robotic surgery is one of the most vital applications of AI in the medical field. This has solved many long pending and complicated issues of surgeons. They can perform surgery with accuracy. Also, tiny organs in tight and confined spaces can be handled. Machine Learning with such an algorithm can save time up to 20 percent in operation. One common application of this robotic surgery is hair transplantation in the human body.
5. Smart Health Record
Many persons are very lazy and so they always find health maintaining records an exhaustive task. Algorithm enabled AI or ML makes this task easier and also saves effort as well as money. Google algorithms like Cloud Vision API, Matlab are gaining popularity. Matlab is useful in handwriting recognition technology.MIT is also in a race in a next-gen intelligent system to record Health checkups record smartly.
6.Clinical Trial and Research
Old fashioned clinical trial systems consume both time and money. To control the cost and precious time, AI with an algorithm is useful. All the real-time data of the patient is tracked online and also without any confusion. In recent times, Pharma companies are using this system to find a new vaccine for COVID 19.
7. Improved Radiotherapy
Radiology is the field in medical science that badly requires technology like AI or ML. In other words, we can say, AI or deep learning is the demand of the day for improved Radiotherapy. Artificial Intelligence classifies lesions into normal or abnormal. It also categorizes into lesions or non-lesion. A deep learning algorithm classifies a cell as cancerous or healthy.
8. Pandemic Outbreak Alert
One application of AI is alertness to Pandemic Outbreak. Though it was not very successful in the case of COVID, it is equally important. The current application and future importance of AI go hand in hand. Today scientists have tons of data available. The neural network helps to analyze the data and see if any danger of pandemic outbreak is there.
9. Antibacterial Super-resistance
Whenever new drugs or antibiotics are given to patients, doctors find that germs also develop resistance to it. If it continues, drugs will be ineffective in due course of time. And the patient will start dying. Here, the role of AI is very important. ML algorithms offer the possibility of identifying genetic weaknesses in drug-resistant strains of bacteria. Algorithms like MRSA and XGBoost are very popular and they are working to the satisfaction of doctors.
10. AI in common diseases
Now its commom to apply AI in diseases like heart -attack, pulmonary function tests, neurology (brain stroke), nephrology etc.
CHALLENGES OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN HEALTHCARE
Yes, definitely everybody agrees with the amazing benefits of AI in the medical industry. But it also carries negative effects. let us study some challenges of AI in healthcare.
- Pattern of disease kep on changing continuously. Tha latest example is of changing strain of COVID. A change in data due to any such circumstance will give wrong ouput.
- When sufficient data is not available, ML/AI may produce wrong results leading toa big confusion to doctors.
- If doctors start to use the findings of AI blindly and if sometime it give wrong prediction, it may be harmful to patient.
- AI /ML systems may suggest a treatment but fail to consider any potential unintended consequences.
- Some data of patient may be used illegaly and thus privacy of patient overruled.
- Private data of patients health may be available in public forum.
FUTURE OF AI IN MEDICAL FIELD
Comparing the pros and cons of Artificial Intelligence, It can be predicted that the future of AI in medical field is very bright. Though, there may be some errors, AI in health industry will give satisfactory results and help doctors a lot.Money and time saving will be a great attractive feature of this technology.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)
- What are examples of artificial intelligence in healthcare?
Please read the applications in above paragraphs
- What is Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging?
Pleases read Improved Radiotherapy in Applications of AI above.
- Which country uses AI in Medical Imaging?
Mexico
- What is the main role of artificial intelligence in healthcare?
Please read the Applications of AI.
- Will AI take over doctors?
Definately, not in near future.
- Is artificial intelligence replacing humans?
No, not in near future.
CONCLUSION
Artificial Intelligence is a boon to humanity as far as applications of AI in the medical field is concerned. Patients and doctors both can save time as well as money. This system becomes more effective when a serious patient gets medical help at his home.
But it is not that doctors’ scope is getting diminished. Doctors shall continue their services to humanity as earlier. The drawback of the technology is that personal secrecy can break. Storing personal data with secrecy is the concern of the experts.