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AI in digital health

Jul 27, 2022

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Getting access to affordable healthcare is one of the most fundamental human rights. Since its inception, human civilization has constantly looked forward to caring for ailments it faces. With time, humans have been discovering new and modified ways to care for their health. And with the entrance into the 21st century, the findings in this sector cannot be compared to their predecessors.

Although a lot of conventional methods of providing healthcare are still in place, a great majority of them have been replaced by the latest technological advances. Now, healthcare is taking a more digital approach to providing treatment to people. An important example of healthcare is that it has started incorporating AI in medical practice. The history of AI goes back to being as early as the Greeks when they used to govern the world. Back in those days, automatons or machines capable of performing on their own were used to protect and guard the Greek cities. With scientific advances and research in the early 1950s, various approaches and visions were presented to achieve machine intelligence.

With today’s technological advances, AI is proving to be helpful to human beings more than ever before. One of the most outstanding examples of providing digital healthcare was during the Covid-19 pandemic when medical practitioners provided consultation to their patients remotely. Another example of AI being used on a large scale lies in the UN using more than 200 applications, including healthcare. These applications are helping the UN on many fronts, especially in combating Covid-19 effectively.

One more important sector in healthcare where AI is being used is the medical device manufacturing sector. A lot of medical devices have to be developed such that they provide patients with a personalized experience. And this can only be achieved by incorporating these devices with AI technology. More informaition about digital heathcare and AI from links:
https://bekey.io/
https://www.nature.com/collections/gdeaidfdag/

AI in digital health


As humanity advances further in its pursuit of better healthcare, it is taking more sophisticated and scientific approaches. One such advance is using AI or Artificial Intelligence in this regard. This article has already listed some instances where AI is being used in healthcare sectors worldwide. Below, this article will take a look at the role of AI in healthcare in more detail.

What is AI in Healthcare?


Generally speaking, AI refers to computers copying human cognition and intelligence to learn, think, decide, and take actions. In healthcare, AI is the application of Machine Learning algorithms and other similar technologies to provide healthcare.

The importance of AI in health and medicine can be understood from the fact that it can assist medical practitioners, nurses, and emergency medical technicians in various ways. Some of the other ways in which AI can help the healthcare sector are:

  • By enhancing preventive care and quality of life

  • By producing accurate diagnoses and prescribing the corresponding treatment plans

  • Tracking the data of infectious disease and predicting its outcome and effect, thus helping control pandemics, endemics, and epidemics effectively.


Example of AI in Healthcare:

A prominent example of using AI in healthcare is to reach a correct diagnosis by using patients' data and other relevant information. With the help of AI, doctors and other medical practitioners can achieve a more accurate diagnosis and prescribe treatment. AI can also help the healthcare sector take a proactive approach by analyzing data and recommending correct therapeutic strategies to patients.

What the future holds for AI and digital therapeutics?


By looking at the current trends surrounding AI healthcare, one can easily determine that AI is going to play a very crucial role in the advancement of health, medicine, and digital therapeutics. Various published studies indicate different ways through which AI can influence the upcoming healthcare medical trends. Some of these include:

  • Answering phones and booking appointments for patients



  • Reviewing the medical records

  • Analyzing trends regarding the community's health

  • Helping with designing newer drugs and therapeutic strategies, and

  • Interpreting the radiological images


Not only that, but AI can also help the medical sector by interacting with patients and understanding their ailments.

Another study published in the Nature journal takes a closer look at AI’s role in changing upcoming medical practices. One of the significant developments that need to be mentioned in this regard is the discovery of new drugs using AI. This fact provides validation that AI will be able to provide pharmaceutical companies with a significant ROI on drugs that cannot make it into the market after failure in the first two clinical trials.

Some other significant ways through which AI can influence the future of medicine are:


Personalization


Personalization IS the norm of our digital world. As much as we like to personalize our daily lives, it is not a hidden fact that people would also like to receive personalized healthcare. They may want customizations and a more personalized experience during their stay at the hospital. As of now, personalized devices, such as watches and fitness trackers, are being used widely worldwide and help people track various health stats, such as their heart rates, the steps they walk, the hours they sleep, their calorie intake, etc. All of these devices use AI efficiently to keep track of these stats.

Pharma Companies and their Use of AI

Pharma companies also use AI to keep track of diseases and conditions that remain and persist in certain patient groups only. With this record, they can take a more personalized approach to providing targeted care to patients belonging to such groups.

Proactivity


AI can make healthcare take a more proactive approach instead a reactive one. This way, a lot of lives can be saved, and many people can be protected from various morbidities and mortalities. With AI’s help, medical professionals can detect various acute events and prevent patients from going down a spiral of different associated conditions.

For example, various AI applications can listen to a single heartbeat and detect the development of Congestive Heart Failure easily. This development excludes the need for patients to be rushed into the ER. Instead, potential patients can detect these conditions and talk to their doctors about all possible treatment options.

Patient Empowerment


With AI, patients will become more independent, at least in the case of detecting their problems early and then providing emergency treatment for themselves. A prominent example n this regard is the use of Azure-based AI programs through which patients of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) can detect their health condition remotely. It must be noted here that COPD affects around 1.2 million people in the UK and includes symptoms such as breathlessness, persistent cough, and chest infections. Using AI-based technology, such patients can look after the development of any of their ongoing symptoms, inform their healthcare provider, and get prompt treatment.

Another example of using AI in healthcare is the collaboration of the Novartis Foundation with Microsoft. Both of these platforms are working together to develop an AI program that will help detect if a patient coming from a rural Brazilian area has a chance of developing leprosy or not. This program will do this by looking at various images taken from the patients. Detecting leprosy at an early stage is necessary since it is a contagious infectious disease.

AI Applications for Digital Health


The major areas where AI-based digital healthcare applications work are detecting symptoms and then providing all the possible treatment options to the patients. This helps the patients as they can engage in a more fruitful conversation with their healthcare provider and inquire about all the possible outcomes for their condition. Consider the following examples in this regard:

Applications for Detecting Skin Changes


Some applications work by detecting the skin symptoms, such as itchiness, dryness, or eruption of new spots over the skin. By inserting these symptoms into these apps, patients can assess their conditions and get a second opinion from these apps on whether they need to visit a doctor for their condition or not.

Applications for a More Personalized Approach


Many AI-based applications allow people to set up an account, after which they work as personalized healthcare companions. Patients can enter their symptoms using these applications and get a complete health assessment. Aside from entering their symptoms, patients must also enter some of their details, such as general health history, eating habits, etc.

Symptom Checkers and Medical Vocabulary:


Various applications and platforms, such as Web MD, provide people with symptom banks where they can enter their symptoms and predict correct diagnoses. These platforms also have an extensive medical dictionary containing articles and knowledge pieces on various health conditions reading which people can increase their medical knowledge.

Conclusion


In conclusion, it can be said that AI is going to exert a major influence on upcoming health practices. Doctors and other medical personnel can enable themselves to take a more targeted approach to curing their patients. It is also being projected that AI will be able to perform complex surgical procedures in the upcoming future, thus relieving surgeons of doing tiresome operations for long hours.

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