Gone are the days when Artificial Intelligence was considered science fiction. AI has been continually proving its impact across various industries. It is increasingly sophisticated at doing things we humans do, but more efficiently, instantly and cost-effectively. AI is transforming the way we see the world today, interact, consume information and obtain goods and services. Just like many other industries, AI is rapidly entering healthcare and is serving major roles, from automating drudgery and routine tasks in medical practice to managing patients and medical resources.
Let’s check out some of the outstanding applications of AI in today’s healthcare industry.
- Managing Medical Records and Other Data
In healthcare, compiling and organizing information like medical records and other past history is generally the first step. Artificial Intelligence and Digital Automation help to simplify data management to a great extent. Currently, robots are being utilized to collect, store, reformat, trace and store data to provide faster and more consistent access to the information.
- Performing Repetitive Tasks
Robots can do mundane tasks such as analyzing tests, X-Rays, CT scans, data entry, faster and more accurately. AI makes the process more simplified. In particular, cardiologists and radiologists have a massive amount of data to analyze which can be overwhelming and time-consuming. Thanks to AI, cardiologists and radiologists in the future will only be looking at the most complicated cases where human supervision is necessary.
- Treatment Design
Artificial Intelligence systems are developed to analyze data to help the medical professionals to select the accurate and individually customized path of the treatment. The data required for the processing includes notes and reports from a patient’s file. With external research and clinical expertise, the AI systems help in customizing the treatment course.
- Digital Consultation
Presently, AI is being used to create applications that can offer medical consultation to the patients on the basis of personal medical history coupled with common medical knowledge. Users are supposed to enter their symptoms into the app and with the use of speech recognition technology; the app compares the received information against databases of illnesses. Based on the user’s medical history, the app recommends the right treatments.
- Virtual Nurses
AI’s virtual nursing assistants help the patients to reduce sudden and frequent visits to the hospital and reduce the load on medical professionals. These assistants are excellent for nursing, and in helping the patients and medical professionals be in touch with each other all the time.
Additionally, AI-based applications and chatbots support care providers to deliver nursing assistance even after discharge from the hospital. AI-enabled devices are available even as simple wearables and apps on smartphones that remind the patients about their medications and motivate them to exercise regularly. It also clarifies medical doubts sought by the patients and warns medical professionals about untoward incidents.
- Drug Creation
Generally, creating different types of pharmaceuticals with the help of clinical trials is very expensive and consumes a lot of time. AI has the capability to make the process faster and cheaper. AI applications can scan the existing medicines and will be able to redesign them to make them fight the disease strongly.
- Robots in Surgeries
In an effort to improve the existing surgical techniques, cognitive surgical robots can use information from actual surgical encounters. By collecting data from pre-op medical records, medical teams can get insights into really useful data. This technique has the chance of reducing the time of the treatment and can improve the scope of the error.
- Cybersecurity
In a hospital, it is important to maintain safety and keep the patient’s data safe and secure so that it is not misused by anyone. Some security systems might be prone to breaches. But with the installation of an AI cybersecurity application, it gives the system an extra layer of safety.
Future Scope
These are just a few applications of AI in the healthcare industry. This technology still has a long way to go despite its presence in healthcare for quite a few years. As innovations advance, solution providers are approaching AI to save time and cost in the treatment processes whilst increasing the accuracy of the treatments. The development of more and more AI applications is increasing the opportunities for the health sector to improve their patient care and give out better services.