Doctors Of Future: Artificial Intelligence
All of us have been in a hospital for one or another reason and are aware of the medical procedures that follow during initial check up and diagnosis. Sometimes it gets a lot tedious to get so many tests done before a diagnosis is made and even some of the diseases reach a stage where they become incurable before their clinical diagnosis, like cancers.
To circumvent this worldwide issue of timely diagnosis and to make procedures less laborious, researchers and technologist are working together to develop doctors of future by integrating a large set of data into computers along with sophisticated algorithms to sort useful information out of it. These systems, although, are in their initial stage of development but they are already making an impact on the field of medicine.
Here are some of the popular AI systems that are paving the way for future medicine.
IBM Watson Health
IBM Watson is a supercomputer developed by IBM and named after its CEO M Watson. IBM Watson initiated its program IBM Watson for oncologists in 2012, with a partnership with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center doctors to tap their knowledge and catalog their specific expertise in rare forms of cancer. Those early collaborations produced impressive results and led to a full-court press to revolutionize healthcare and now it includes other tools like IBM Watson for genomics and IBM Watson for drug discovery.
The supercomputer’s ability to analyze vast stores of data and recognize patterns make it a natural fit for medical applications. Watson specializes in combining attributes from the patient’s file with clinical expertise, external research, and data and then identifies potential treatment plans for a patient.
Last year company spent $1 billion to acquire medical image company Merge Healthcare to feed their supergiant 30 billion images so it could identify abnormalities in X-rays and MRIs. Similar spends on Watson totaled at more than $4 billion to fund Watson’s medical education.
All the expenses of Watson are paying off. Doctors at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine provided Watson with the records of 1,000 cancer patients, and it was able to provide treatment plans that concurred with oncologists’ actual recommendations in 99% of cases. Additionally, Watson was able to provide additional options missed by its human counterparts in 30% of the cases, having been supplied with all the latest cancer research. This will provide effective cancer treatment to a wider variety of patients than ever before while making every doctor with access to Watson a cancer expert.
Assisting Repetitive Jobs
IBM launched another algorithm called Medical Sieve. It is an ambitious long-term exploratory project to build a next-generation “cognitive assistant” with analytical, reasoning capabilities and a wide range of clinical knowledge. Medical Sieve is qualified to assist in clinical decision making in radiology and cardiology. The “cognitive health assistant” is able to analyze radiology images to spot and detect problems faster and more reliably. Radiologists in the future should only look at the most complicated cases where human supervision is useful.
Deep Genomics
Deep genomics is a technology that aims at finding disease-related markers, patterns and various modifications on the human genome that are inherent or confer upon a cell during its interaction with the internal or external environment. The technology developed by Deep Genomics is based on machine learning, a powerful and practical form of artificial intelligence.
They are developing new machine learning methods that can find patterns in massive datasets and infer computer models of how cells read the genome and generate biomolecules.
For example, in the case of Huntington disease, the genetic code of Huntington’s protein gets modified which result in the production of a faulty protein that causes neurological complications. Identification of molecular markers near Huntington gene with the help of computer models and algorithms would diagnose this life-threatening disease at earlier stages.
Google Deepmind
Recently, the AI research branch of the search giant, Google, launched its Google Deepmind Health project, which is used to mine the data of medical records in order to provide better and faster health services. STREAMS is one of such app developed by Deepmind healthcare to help clinicians to detect acute kidney injury (AKI) at an early stage. This app uses input from the data of various patients and automatically alerts clinicians as soon as a blood test indicates a possible AKI, and provides them with all the historical patient information they need to make the right diagnosis.
STREAMS was first introduced at the Royal Free in early 2017 and has shown early signs of improving patient care. By the end of February, more than 26 nurses and doctors at the Royal Free were using Streams, with the app alerting clinicians to an average of 11 patients at risk of acute kidney injury per day, saving them up to two hours every day, which they can spend face-to-face with patients.
Babylon Health
Babylon is a subscription health service provider that enables users to have virtual consultations with doctors and healthcare professionals via text and video messaging through its mobile application. The service also allows users to receive drug prescriptions, referrals to health specialists, and book health exams with nearby facilities. Users can choose to subscribe to a monthly fee and gain unlimited virtual access to general practitioners or opt for a pay-as-you-go model. It also lets user track test results, activity levels, and health info. The app enables users to confidentially send text messages, photos, and video inquiries to the company’s team of health care professionals that include doctors, nurses, and therapists. The app is available for iOS and Android mobile devices.
What do you think about AI ‘s impact on healthcare? Write your opinions in the comments section below.
