Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: How It's Transforming Patient Care

Remote patient care, drug discovery, and diagnosis are the areas using artificial intelligence in the healthcare industry. But exactly how? Let us explore those myriad healthcare applications that are revolutionizing these areas.

A Quick Overview of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare 

Generally, AI involves advanced machine learning or deep learning algorithms and computational models to mimic human intelligence and perform complex tasks that require reasoning, processing, contextual understanding, and accuracy. 

In healthcare, these algorithms and models can perform tasks specific to doctors, nurses, researchers, and administrative staff.

However, until the mid-20th century, AI was only a theoretical concept for the healthcare industry. Between 1960 and 1970, researchers at Stanford University in California developed AI systems, laying the groundwork for the future of AI in healthcare. 

Dendar, a chemical-analysis expert system, was the first to be developed to assist chemists in identifying unknown organic molecules. Later, in the 1970s, MYCIN was developed in the university to identify infection-causing bacteria and recommend antibiotics for them. 

More innovative healthcare applications are being developed with the advancements in AI technologies such as generative AI, machine learning, and deep learning. These advanced systems can do more with less, are highly accurate, and are fast, benefitting researchers, doctors, and patients. 

8 Benefits of AI in Healthcare

1. Improved Diagnostic Accuracy

Human researchers find it difficult to analyze medical images and identify patterns in unstructured data. Although advanced tools exist for these precision tasks, there are still chances of huge errors. By parenting with a reputable AI development company, healthcare providers are improving diagnosis accuracy with advanced AI tools.

2. Personalized Treatment Plans

AI can free doctors and physicians to give treatment plans based on their patient's health and medical history. 

3. Predictive Analytics

AI also helps doctors analyze historical data on patients and more effectively predict the results of new treatments or improvements in their chronic conditions. With predictive analytics, doctors can even analyze whether a patient is at high risk of getting cancer. 

4. Enhanced Efficiency

Simple administrative tasks, such as scheduling and billing, consume hours of administrative staff at times of heavy workload. AI solutions/applications/chatbots can reduce their workload while promoting self-service in patients.

5. Faster Drug Discovery

AI can help researchers efficiently and precisely discover new drugs that can potentially treat new or existing diseases.

6. Continuous Patient Monitoring

One of the best benefits of AI in healthcare is remote monitoring of elderly patients. Through such applications, families, caregivers, and nurses can monitor patients' changing conditions and intervene early if things go wrong. This gives healthcare professionals more time to treat patients who need urgent care. 

7. Reduction of Human Error

AI systems are great at assisting healthcare professionals in making decisions related to patient treatment, care, and medicine recommendations. This support reduces the likelihood of errors in diagnosis and treatment.

8. Cost Reduction

With remote patient monitoring, early disease diagnosis, and fast appointment scheduling, healthcare providers are reaping the efficiency benefits of AI and cutting costs. For patients, using artificial intelligence in healthcare means increasing the accessibility of quality care.

The Key AI Innovations Improving Patient Care

So far, we have understood AI's role in healthcare and its benefits. Let's learn how this transformative technology is utilized in various domains. We will also explore real-world AI solutions that are already making an impact. 

1. AI in Diagnostics

Traditionally, diagnosis accuracy relied on the subjective interpretation of data, which is usually billions or millions. Processing such a huge amount of data annually is more than a task for researchers, leading to variability and errors. 

Moreover, according to the American Health Association, more than 90% of this data is never used because it is unstructured. 

AI addresses these challenges by offering ways for more consistent and precise analysis. AI algorithms can analyze thousands of medical images, including X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans, and precisely detect abnormalities.

Real-world AI Solutions for Diagnosis 

DeepMind Health: Google developed an AI system under its DeepMind health initiative for early detection of diabetic retinopathy.

IBM's Watson for Oncology: IBM uses AI to help pathologists identify cancerous tissues in biopsy samples. 

Sepsis Watch: This life-threatening condition is very common but difficult to detect in humans. The Duke University Health System has developed an AI-based tool to identify patients in the early stages of this disease. 

2. AI in Treatment Planning and Precision Medicine

Traditionally, treatment plans are generalized, reducing the quality and effectiveness of care. Each patient's condition is different, so the treatment plan should be. However, focusing on each patient for personalized care could be more manageable with the increased workload on doctors and staff. 

AI can remove this limitation with its powerful analyzing capabilities. AI solutions can consider everything from genetic information and medical history to lifestyle factors to create personalized patient treatment plans. With this advancement, doctors can improve the effectiveness of their treatments, reduce patients' readmission rates, and reduce errors in drug selection. 

Real-World AI Solutions in Personalized Treatment 

Elekta ProKnow is a company that specializes in radiation oncology. They have developed an adaptive CT-linac software powered by AI to help doctors provide personalized radiation therapy to each cancer patient. 

3. AI in Remote Patient Monitoring and Care

Artificial intelligence in healthcare has accelerated telehealth and remote patient monitoring. The development of AI-powered applications, devices, smart pill boxes, and platforms helps healthcare providers monitor patients remotely.

They can analyze their heart rate, blood pressure, and glucose levels even from a remote location. With this level of continuous monitoring, doctors can find potential issues early and suggest treatments or therapies on time.

What's Next: The Future of AI in Healthcare

So far, we have learned how AI helps the healthcare industry, but is this the best AI can do? Advancements in technology have continued, and more accurate, fast, and lightweight AI models are being developed that can process millions of data. 

With these advancements, the possibilities and benefits of AI in healthcare are beyond what we are getting right now.

AI solutions would be smarter and more autonomous, discovering new ways to diagnose, treat, predict, prevent, and even cure patients. However, this is achievable only if they can accurately match the patients with the right clinical trials or detect the risk of diseases years before they occur. 

With the pace at which researchers and experts are experimenting, it is obvious that new AI technology in healthcare will keep emerging to meet these requirements. 

Remember, with these new possibilities in AI would come great concerns about protecting patients' data and strict regulations for healthcare providers. 

This is where hiring expert AI development companies becomes important, as they help tackle data-related challenges and develop innovative and custom healthcare applications.

Conclusion

AI is improving patient care and driving significant advancements in diagnostics, treatment planning, and medical research. The results are surprisingly better than expected, cementing that AI will continuously evolve the healthcare industry in surprising ways. Its precision and accuracy will lead to more benefits in every aspect of this industry.

However, these benefits come with compliance challenges like HIPAA and data security. An experienced and domain-specialist AI development company can navigate these complexities and build impactful and meaningful applications for patients and doctors. Partner with them today and harness AI's power to foster personalized and modernized patient care.