In a nutshell: The AI revolution in healthcare
AI is transforming how doctors treat patients, accelerating the time it takes to diagnose and treat pathology, and giving patients, physicians, and healthcare workers more options.
In 2021, 85% of the healthcare CEOs surveyed by health insurer Optum had an AI strategy in place. By 2030, the market for artificial intelligence in healthcare is expected to be worth more than USD $187.95 billion, expanding at a CAGR of 37% throughout that time.
What role does AI play in healthcare?
AI is always being developed for new application cases. However, some of the ways that healthcare organizations are already using AI technology include:
- Medical evaluation. By analyzing patient data and finding patterns that can assist in quicker and more accurate diagnoses, AI is enhancing the diagnostic process. Research demonstrates that AI technologies are useful for diagnosing a variety of malignancies, including skin cancer and breast cancer.
- Individualized care. By analyzing patient data for a variety of medical ailments, doctors are utilizing AI to create treatment plans that are uniquely tailored to each patient.
- Treatment for cancer. Right now, inventors of AI health technology and decision-makers are concentrating heavily on the cancer epidemic. For instance, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) of the UK granted approval for nine AI technologies to be used in cancer therapies offered by the National Health Service (NHS) in August 2023. Lung, prostate, and colorectal malignancies will be treated with external beam radiotherapy using these methods.
- Surgery with robots. Robot-assisted operations are being carried out using AI, which can be less intrusive and more accurate than conventional surgery.
- Improving the effectiveness of clinical trials. AI is being used to assess clinical data and forecast patient outcomes, including the effectiveness of treatments, the safety of medical devices, and more. It is assisting researchers in creating more thorough and efficient trials and discovering potential medicines that are worthwhile for future investigation.
Furthermore, these are but a few examples.
Researchers are investigating the potential of AI for a wide range of healthcare tasks, including remote patient monitoring and administrative tasks.
Dr. Istvan Petak, a physician-scientist and the CEO of Genomate Health. When I spoke with him, he said:
"While it is definitely difficult to imagine how AI will shape healthcare development in the near or far future, it is now no longer implausible to imagine AI becoming an integral part of healthcare services," the report stated.
Dr. Petak invented next-generation sequencing in molecular profiling of solid tumors in 2008 after pioneering molecular pharmacology of programmed cell death in 1998, predictive molecular diagnostics of lung cancer in 2003, and molecular profiling of solid tumors in 1998.
In 2021, he oversaw the creation of a cutting-edge computational technique that effectively applied cognitive computing to precision oncology.
In their daily work, medical professionals are adopting and using an increasing number of digital tools, including artificial intelligence (AI). A lot of research is being done to use technology to solve complex problems, from remote healthcare to individualized medicine, from wearable medical devices to AI in healthcare.
Additionally, the introduction of so many new instruments is producing a vast amount of data that cannot be examined and analyzed alone by humans. We need artificial intelligence (AI) to aid with the hundreds (or even thousands) of variables that need to be taken into consideration when making medical decisions that are based (at least in part) on a vast amount of digitally acquired data.
Dr. Petak continued, "We think AI in healthcare won't be a disruption in the future." The use of AI will be a necessity and a norm to ensure the best treatment for patients."