How artificial intelligence is changing the healthcare industry?

Healthcare is a sector without which life on earth would have not been possible. It is the heart of humans in terms of providing advisory, diagnostic, and treatment solutions along with pharmaceutical products. This sector has emerged a lot since time immemorial and people around the globe are actively investing in this field. The main concept of the healthcare system is to help the sick recover by giving him an optimum solution at an affordable price.

4 different types of healthcare models are followed all over the globe and these are:

• The Beveridge Model
• Insurance Model
• The Bismarck Model
• The Out-of-Pocket Model

All these models irrespective of the monetary mechanism they follow in return of the services provided are mainly concerned with the wellbeing of the public. At first, there used to huge machines and a team of doctors that used to carry out different tasks starting from setting up these machines, taking readings, provide diagnostic solutions, provide medicines, etc. this incurred a huge amount to be spent for such huge traffic of doctors. The result generation for the disease was also slow because of these obsolete mechanisms but then came a life savior in this field with the name Artificial Intelligence. The moment AI took entry in the field of healthcare there has been drastic positive changes in this field. It has brought so many changes that it is assumed that AI will replace humans in the future.

The concept that this technology uses is the same as how our brain functions with the help of neural networks and has been in the market for quite a long time (the 1960s). Also, being a very vast field there are a few things that are currently in use in the field of healthcare and these are Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing, and Robotics.

Keeping in mind such concepts let’s take a dive and understand how AI is changing the health sector:

AI has revolutionized cancer treatment and diagnosis

Yes, you heard it right; with the help of AI man has achieved the limits where he has succeeded in detecting cancers at early stages. Many researchers and scientists have built firm models that are capable enough to detect cancers much more efficiently than humans. With the emergence of the Convolution Neural Network in the field of AI, it has become quite an easy task to predict the maximum number of cancers. Some cancers that are easily detected with the help of AI are Lung Cancer, Prostate Cancer in males, Cervical Cancer in females, Melanoma Cancer, Medulloblastoma (Brain Cancers) using the Methylation method, Genomic Characterization method, and many more. The National Cancer Institute have themselves adopted AI to diagnose and treat cancers and want the Data Science community to actively help in building robust solutions that can eradicate this problem. Also, many open competitions are held on various websites like Kaggle, Driven Data, etc. and Data Scientist can take part in these and provide their contribution in completing the research.

Helped read unstructured data and generate meaningful inferences

With the help of the Artificial Intelligence Natural Language Processing concept and Neural Networks, it has been possible to detect meaning from unstructured data. Also, this data can then be used for various research purposes and prepare different types of reports. With the help of AI, it is now possible to build chatbots and translators that are trained on a huge amount of data in the past and are now self-sufficient to give solutions on their own. Also, because of AI the Electronic Health Records (EHR) sector has boomed a lot due to the ability to store tons of data and deliver quick results based on analyzing the same. Managing huge databases for administrative purposes in the healthcare industry has flourished a lot with the inculcation of AI.

AI in Tele Medicine Sector to Grow

With such harsh situations that we all are suffering from during this pandemic, there is a tremendous decrease in the mobility of people from one place to another for any purpose. At this time there should be robust mechanisms that can help diseased people as well as animals to get proper treatment from their home only. This is possible through the concept of telemedicine incorporating the technology of AI. Many companies are actively building applications whether in the field of human health, animal husbandry, or plants. Some of the companies that are building such applications include Practo, Animal, Sanchu Animal Hospital, and many more. Also with the support of the FDA in building AI-related apps, many startups have experienced a boost in their business. With such advancement in the field of telemedicine, one does not have to worry even if he/she is ill and can get instant treatment online.

Overhauling of the Healthcare sector by providing Intelligent Robots

The robotics sector is gaining huge recognition in the healthcare sector and is being used in many health institutions for carrying out medically related work. The robots that were built during 2000 in the USA helped the doctors especially surgeons to perform operations much more precisely because these robots enabled them in creating cuts and incisions and also help them to see the minute details of the wound. With the help of AI doctors are now able to do neck surgery, head surgery, gynecological and prostate surgeries very easily.

AI has helped in detecting Tuberculosis by reading Chest X-rays

With the help of Convolutional Neural Network, it is now possible to detect TB through chest X-rays and scientists and researchers are building a benchmark model that can help to predict this disease with more accuracy. Journal related to detecting TB can be studied from various websites like the Journal of Thoracic Disease, Scopus, and websites like MD can be followed to see advancements made in the TB sector by using AI.

Due to the advancements made with the help of AI many investors are putting huge amounts of money to help this sector boost and help the healthcare industry. As per Forbes “the total public and private sector investment in healthcare AI are stunning: All told, it is expected to reach $6.6 billion by 2021”. Also with so many tools that are capable of carrying out AI-related work like Python, R, Scala, Java, C++, Julia, and many more, the reachability and understandability have increased among people and they are actively contributing their part in this sector. The famous Machine Learning algorithms that are most preferred by AI and Data Engineers are Boosting algorithms like CatBoost, AdaBoost, XGBoost, GradientBoost, RandomForest, Bagging algorithms like DecisionTree, SupportVector Machine, Linear and Logistic Regression.

Future of AI in Healthcare

As mentioned above and looking at the advancements that are taking place it seems that in the near future everything will be data-driven and controlled by AI whether it is the health sector or any other sector. Also, due to the advancements taking place not only in Deep Learning but also in Reinforcement Learning, a time will come when we will see a completely different world which will comprise machines more than humans, and their capacity to solve any kind of problem will be unmatchable for any human. Right now AI has dug its roots in limited areas of healthcare but due to the huge investments taking place and innovations taking place every day a time will come when we will be able to achieve Super Artificial Intelligence and use the same in the healthcare industry.

Some Milestones in Healthcare with the help of AI

• Robot passing a medical health exam on Nov 6 2017 in China.
• AI detecting Pneumonia much more efficiently than human radiologists in California on Nov 14, 2017.
• Image Quality Algorithm 2008.
• Computer Diagnosis of Primary Bone Tumors by GWILYM S. LODWICK and fellow researchers in the year 1963.

Conclusion

Start exploring the field of AI and try to revolutionize the healthcare industry as it needs young talents that can bring out reforms in the structure of healthcare by contributing their knowledge.