Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

How is AI being used in Healthcare?

The greatest buzzwords to come from 2018 were blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI). Two technologies creating the most content and excitement going into 2019 across almost every industry sector.

Blockchain has had it’s highs and lows, however AI is trending much more positively. Artificial Intelligence isn’t brand new, we’ve seen the likes of Alexa, Siri, Cortana, and Google not only in our hands but now welcomed into our homes. All of these have gained huge momentum at a consistent pace for the last few years. Other well-known established tech companies, governments, and cutting-edge startups are all looking for a share of the expanding market, and Healthcare companies are right there with them.

How is AI being used in Healthcare?

1. Complete Medical History

Since the first step in health care is compiling and analyzing information (like medical records and previous related medical history), data management is the most widely used application of artificial intelligence and digital automation. Robots collect, store, re-format, and trace data to provide faster, more consistent access.

2. Repetitive Tasks

Analyzing tests, X-Rays, CT scans, data entry, and other mundane tasks can all be done faster and more accurately by robots. Cardiology and radiology are two disciplines where the amount of data to analyze can be overwhelming and time consuming. Cardiologists and radiologists in the future should only look at the most complicated cases where human supervision is useful.

3. Digital Consultation

Apps like Babylon in the UK use AI to give medical consultation based on personal medical history and common medical knowledge. Users report their symptoms into the app, which uses speech recognition to compare against a database of illnesses. Babylon then offers a recommended action, taking into account the user’s medical history.

4. Drug Creation Database

Developing pharmaceuticals through clinical trials can take more than a decade and cost billions of dollars. Making this process faster and cheaper could change the world. Amidst the recent Ebola virus scare, a program powered by AI was used to scan existing medicines that could be redesigned to fight the disease.

This very program found two medications that may reduce Ebola infectivity in one day when analysis of this type generally takes months or years, a difference that could mean saving thousands of lives.

5. Closed Loop Referrals

GetReferd’s unique closed-loop referral process converts 100% of referrals into appointments in real time, reducing administration costs and greatly improving the patient experience.

6. Precision Medicine

Genetics and genomics look for mutations and links to disease from the information in DNA. With the help of AI, body scans can spot cancer and vascular diseases early and predict the health issues people might face based on their genetics.

7. Health Monitoring

Wearable health trackers, like those from FitBit, Apple, Garmin and others, monitors heart rate and activity levels. They can send alerts to the user to get more exercise and can share this information to doctors (and AI systems) for additional data points on the needs and habits of patients.

8. Healthcare System Analysis

In the Netherlands, 97% of healthcare invoices are digital. A Dutch company uses AI to sift through the data to highlight mistakes in treatments, workflow inefficiencies, and helps area healthcare systems avoid unnecessary patient hospitalizations.

These are just a sample of the solutions artificial intelligence is offering the healthcare industry. As innovation pushes the capabilities of automation and digital workforces, more solutions to save time, lower costs, and increase accuracy will be possible.