Find Better Interventions For Healthcare with AI

Artificial intelligence has already penetrated a wide spectrum of activities and is affecting lives in a number of ways. From automatic cars, robots to siri, artificial intelligence is gaining importance. Though these prevailing machine learning platforms are being widely used, there are still others that are yet to find greater participation. Most of the applications that we use on a daily basis such as doing video calls with friends, shopping online and payments, also use artificial intelligence.

As AI has already penetrated our lives, it has disrupted the usual way of working of industries in many ways. For instance, use of artificial intelligence in customer care services, financial sector and banking has improved their productivity. However, this has also lead to job displacements. Nevertheless! the positives far outnumber the negative impacts and therefore its significance cannot be overlooked.

This path breaking innovation has also disrupted the working of Healthcare industry as it has not just optimized clinical processes but has helped diagnose chronic diseases such as cancer. Healthcare segment provides endless opportunities to leverage AI for providing a precise and impactful intervention for a patient’s treatment. Below are some of the key areas that has witnessed beneficial usage of AI.

Varied Applications of AI in Healthcare

Artificial intelligence has wide spectrum of application in healthcare and this is not just limited to the operational efficiency of institutions but also encompass clinical treatments for patients. To provide an insight below are some of the applications of AI in healthcare treatments.

Early Detection of Breast Cancer

Across the world, a million of women’s die of breast cancer. The major reason behind these deaths is shortcomings in detection of the stage of cancer. To overcome this issue, researchers conducted studies about how artificial intelligence can diagnose the presence of cancer cells early on to avoid delays in treatment. One such study is carried out by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in their science and AI laboratory that revealed that artificial intelligence can help early detection of breast cancer.

At present, mammography is the best know technique to detect the development of cancer but this might lack the precision. Examining images and relying on judgement is the skill of an expert. But at times high risk lesions that are not detected in mammography are left unexamined. In such a case, biopsy using needles are done which is a complex procedure for patients. To reduce this dependence on needles and mammography, a start up in India has combined machine learning alogrithms, thermal images and big data analytics to improve breast cancer diagnoses. The screening tool has been developed to scan the breast and look for only those tissues that have abnormalities and cancerous lumps

Detect Skin Cancer Accurately

Another study has revealed that AI has outperformed human beings in detecting skin cancer. Even the severe moles and melanoma can be reliably diagnosed with AI as compared to physicians. The AI technology is called deep learning convolutional neural network (CNN) that has shown greater detection results than dermatologist. To detect skin cancer, dermoscopic images are taken using dermascope. These high-resolution images are then analysed and diagnosed by CNN tool. The tool is developed using high pixel images and disease labels as input to understand what kind of lump it is. This path breaking innovation will assist the physicians involved in skin cancer screening to decide whether to conduct biopsy of lesion or not.

Next Generation Radiology Tools

For detection of chronic diseases, MRI scans, images and X Rays are taken to understand the underlying cause. In other cases, biopsies of tissues are done which often result in infections. The advent of artificial intelligence in radiology will provide next generation diagnoses of scans and images. With this innovation, AI will add value to the advice and treatment that doctors provide to their patients. In case of strokes a well programmed AI platform can read the scans with high level of occlusions. In this way, the priority scans are shown to the physician thus saving a lot of false positives.

The Bottom Line

The advancements made by AI in the healthcare sector are laudable but these innovations are yet to be used full-fledged used by diagnostic centers and physicians. It won’t be too long when artificial intelligence will prevail across all spears of life as they provided greater advantage than conventional methods of diagnosis and clinical trials. While many opponents say that these technologies will displace jobs of radiologists and other physicians but in fact the proponents of these technology innovations support its usage as it will improve the judgement criteria. Lastly, in case of lack of trained staff, AI can assist in achieving high levels of accuracy.

Author Bio Emma Salvador, a masters in computer science has knack for computer technologies. Has over 15 years of experience in system security and IoT.