Artificial intelligence is one of the biggest coming disruptions in healthcare.

Its applications can be witnessed in the following

areas in healthcare:
Diagnosis
Machine learning algorithms equal and in some cases bypass human experts in performance. Researchers at Beth Israel
Deaconess Medical Center reported that an AI-powered diagnostic program correctly identified cancer in pathology slides 92
percent of the time, just shy of trained pathologists’ 96 percent.
AI-powered predictive care for chronic diseases
Different factors influence our health, like where we are born, what we eat, where we work or what the local air pollution
levels are. These factors are collectively known as the social determinants of health. AI can collate the effect of all such factors
and suggest preventative measures before any disease gets worse.
Record keeping
AI powered platforms take medical voice recording and use natural language processing to make concise notes.
Connected care
A hospital is no longer one building that covers a broad range of diseases. With AI patients can be re-directed to centers
where they will receive the best care. This also distributes the workload, thereby optimizing the process.
Better patient and staff experiences
AI has also improved softer aspects of healthcare. A decade ago, health workers were facing burnout caused by stress of
helping too many patients with too few resources. Now AI powered predictive networks are helping reduce wait times,
improve staff workflows and take on the administrative burden.
Testing
Testing platforms are increasingly using AI to improve their accuracy. During covid dara generated from tests like RTPCR,
CRISPR are fed to AI to build models which can then discover new treatments and understand the molecular basis of human
disease.
Vaccine development
Machine learning technology has been used to screen large databases and select which viral proteins offered the greatest
Potential issues:
Misdiagnoses:
One challenge is ensuring that high-quality data is used to train AI. If it is biased or otherwise flawed, that will be reflected in
the performance. A second challenge is ensuring that the prejudices rife in society aren’t reflected in the algorithms, added by
programmers unaware of those they may unconsciously hold.
Blackbox problem:
Since the algorithms are designed to learn and improve their performance over time, sometimes even their designers can’t
be sure how they arrive at a recommendation or diagnosis, a feature that leaves some uncomfortable.
Privacy:
ML algorithms need huge amounts of data to accurately predict any health outcome. This data comes from real people, who
would be at a severe threat is the data gets leaked somehow and it isn’t properly anonymized.

AI’s strong suit is “large, shallow data” while doctors’ expertise is the deep sense they may have of the actual patient.
Together, the two make a potentially powerful combination. Technology is a as a force-multiplier and a technological backstop
that not only eases the burden on health personnel at all levels, but makes them better.