by Dr Rohit Sharma
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly making inroads into healthcare and is providing key roles in medical practice, from automating hard work and routine tasks to managing patients and medical resources. Increased capacity for AI Health care Professionals are able to better understand the daily patterns and needs of the people they care for, and with that understanding provide better feedback, guidance and support to help them stay healthy. Each year, around 400,000 hospitalized patients suffer preventable harm, including 100,000 deaths. In light of that, one of AI’s most exciting healthcare applications is its promise to improve the diagnostic process.
AI is now being used to identify diseases like cancer more precisely and in their early stages. According to American Cancer Society, a high proportion of mammograms give false results, causing 1 in 2 healthy women to be told they have cancer. The use of AI enables mammogram review and interpretation 30 times faster with 99% accuracy, reducing the need for unnecessary biopsies. People are slowly becoming aware of virtual agents and AI like SIRI, Alexa and Cortana etc. Also, the new generation of doctors is more tech-friendly.
Millions of people in rural areas have their nearest hospital more than 100 km away while many in cities have multiple hospitals but then have to wait for hours to get a 2 minute appointment. According to a government study, 57.3% of medical practitioners in India are not even graduates. They are quacks. Where do patients go now? They make do with whatever is available at hand; They go to chemists or worse quacks for medical advice. Embedding AI algorithms into healthcare information systems can be beneficial because of its potential to improve patient outcomes, especially in busy departments such as emergency departments.
Current doctor patient ratio in the country – 1:11,000 vs. As per WHO required is 1:1000. Besides, people are still being misled by unlicensed earthquakes in many parts. Additionally, adding 1 new human doctor to the workforce requires at least 10+ years of time and over 300,000 USD (or > 2 crore INR) worth of money along with constant retraining and infrastructure upgrades. Using AI chatbots trained using legitimate medical data can not only bridge the gap between demand and supply of medical guidance but also greatly reduce this time and financial cost. Another area where AI is starting to catch on in healthcare is using pattern recognition to identify patients at risk of developing a condition or seeing it worsen due to lifestyle, environmental, genomic or other factors.
AI solves the problems of access, affordability and awareness (3 A’s) to a great extent. In addition, the integrated collection and transfer of structured medical information (data) between patients, doctors and healthcare institutions is nowadays done using AI. AI in healthcare simplifies and to some extent automates the process of medical coding and coordination of cases for insurance companies and hospitals, and can reduce patient visits and thereby reduce costs for both providers and payers in healthcare. Domains In addition, AI has attracted the attention of researchers, clinicians, technology and program developers, and consumers in various fields with regard to its potential for transformative innovations in the treatment of human diseases and public health.
According to World Health Organization, 60% of factors related to personal health and quality of life are related to lifestyle factors, such as exercise, diet, sleep, stress reduction, substance and drug abuse, and/or recreation. There are reports suggesting that AI will potentially add USD 957 billion (or 15% of the current total) to the Indian economy by 2035, and investment in AI in the Indian healthcare industry appears to be on the rise. Therefore, AI used in healthcare in India appears to address issues of economic inequality rather than widening existing gaps. Healthcare sector in India has many opportunities to grow and help many people.
Dr. Rohit Sharma, CEO and Founder, Fine. AI
(Disclaimer: The views expressed are solely those of the author and not necessarily subscribed to by ETHealthworld. ETHealthworld.com shall not be responsible for any loss caused to any person/organization directly or indirectly.)
