Artificial intelligence has been driving innovation in industries across the world for several decades now. For example, it helped introduce robotics to the manufacturing sector and gave rise to tailored advertisements thanks to machine learning. However, the potential for artificial intelligence in the healthcare industry has only recently been discovered. Still, it has quickly become the leading technology to pioneer the future of medicine. In fact, the industry is now predicted to be worth more than $6 billion USD by 2021. But why exactly is artificial intelligence being hailed as the future of healthcare? That is what we will be discussing in our article today. Keep reading to find out more.
Drug Development
Drug development is a notoriously long and laborious process. However, AI could help to catalyse the progression of new treatments. Currently, AI solutions are being invented which can analyse big databases on existing medicines. From here, this software might be able to detect and redesign old drugs for new purposes. This could potentially help to improve the efficiency and success rate of drug development. It is likely that artificial intelligence was behind the coronavirus vaccine being created in record time.
Prosthetic Limbs
Prosthetic limbs are used to replace any appendages that a person has lost because of an accident, ailment or birth defect. In the past, prosthetics had very limited movement and so people fitted with them still didn’t have complete motor function. However, artificial intelligence has pioneered innovation in the sector of bionic limbs, making this technology more sophisticated and seamless than ever before. Now, bionic limbs are able to pick up on electrical signals from the brain and move in response. According to Tej Kohli – who has invested millions into AI – robotics in healthcare have the potential to improve human lives across the world.
Radiology
Human error is a common problem for most industries, but especially in the healthcare sector because this puts people’s lives at risk. Radiology is an area which needs improvement, as doctors can sometimes miss details when looking at scans. Fortunately, AI solutions are currently being developed to help overcome this problem. This kind of software should be able to highlight areas of interest to radiologists, increasing their efficiency and reducing the likelihood of human error. For example, AI has now demonstrated that it is capable of detecting tumours from MRI scans.
Patient Risk Identification
Artificial intelligence is also being used for patient risk identification, helping healthcare professionals to find people who are vulnerable to developing serious conditions and then intervene before matters worsen. But how does AI do this? Well, it can analyse the patient’s medical records and correlate their symptoms with certain ailments. Furthermore, AI software has recently proven that it can analyse still images and predict the probability of a patient developing a problem.
These are some of the main healthcare innovations that have recently come about because of artificial intelligence. There is so much untapped potential here – we feel confident that AI could change everything we once knew about medicine.
