Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the healthcare landscape, offering innovative solutions that enhance patient care, streamline operations, and advance medical research. From improving diagnostic accuracy to personalizing treatment plans, AI technologies are making significant strides in addressing complex health challenges. This article explores ten groundbreaking ways AI is revolutionizing healthcare, showcasing how these advancements are not only making the field more efficient and effective but also paving the way for a healthier future. Through the integration of AI, healthcare providers can deliver better outcomes, reduce costs, and ultimately save lives.
Here are the top 10 ways AI has revolutionized medicine, healthcare, and driven innovations in telemedicine:
- Medicine and Treatment Plans:Â
The use of AI can benefit the patient’s lifestyle by providing data to formulate treatments for that individual. Having therapies that vary from person to person. A study was done in 2021 on the role of AI in oncology and how it can identify genetic biomarkers in cancer patients. This method is very specific in providing certain treatments targeting certain characteristics. By pinpointing these specific markers, AI can select therapies that select specific cells that do not harm healthy cells. In summary, the impact of AI in oncology can transform cancer treatments.
- Using AI in Diagnosing Diseases Early On:Â
Having AI machines and looking for the symptoms that lead to attacked diseases before the symptoms become severe and it helps with identifying the risks before preventing it from advancing. Having a generic lifestyle and even the environment that one is in, all impact the risks that are involved with the disease. There was a study done in 2022 led by Kragelund, and he made a model that found the risks of CVD and created an intervention that improved the results and reduced the costs. His model had a very high accuracy rate where it could help with preventing future cardiovascular events within 5 years and achieved from things like sleeping patterns to stress levels to SES factors. This use of AI has helped patients in their cardiovascular health being very impactful in the advancements it has made.
- Medical Imaging with AI:Â
Imaging devices like X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans all do one thing: they detect disease. With the increased use of AI, the process is much faster and things that are missed by humans can be detected closely with artificial intelligence. Radiology is a huge division of medicine that works with imaging devices. There was a study done in 2021 on the use of AI on breast cancer in mammography and in comparison with radiologists. AI has been shown to find better results in detecting cancer than without these devices by 61.4%.
- The AI Use in Surgery:Â
The use of robotics in surgeries has been around, however, with the assistance of AI the precision of the surgery outcome allows to have fewer complications. The precision allows surgeons to perform in a manner where they can have control and reduce the infection in a manner that is quick for the patient. The question was: are surgeries that involve AI safer than no AI? There was a study done in 2023 where researchers were comparing the safety of robotic versus laparoscopic cholecystectomy surgery being performed. The outcome of this experiment was that the use of AI brought a safer approach.
- Virtual Health:Â
AI is integrated now with virtual health tools like scheduling appointments, accessing information from health professionals all around the nation, and more tools that prevent the patient from interacting with the doctor directly, like symptom checking. These AI chatbots are helpful in terms of cost and convenience and are very consistent in monitoring data. A study was published back in 2018 that wanted to determine the risks of AI due to safety issues. However, the study showed that these AI services are made for their safety and are programmed to respond faster to health inquiries.
- AI Use in the Discovery of Drugs:
The use of AI has helped with reducing the cost and time to make new drugs to streamline the process, especially now with COVID-19. AI has been needed to intervene and analyze in a disease like the SARS-CoV-2 virus that caused COVID-19. There has been a study published by Elsevier B.V. on artificial intelligence detecting through algorithms in repurposing for SARS-CoV-2 inhibited drugs and, overall, providing AI applications in research for further findings. The outcome of this study was that AI can decrease rates of failed repurposed drugs in lots of trials and has influenced the makings of lots of vaccinations for COVID-19.
- AI Devices:Â
Wearing devices that have AI algorithms incorporated into them benefits a lot when tracking vital signs and physical activity. These contain sensors that help with tracking health metrics, being very helpful in health management with individuals who need tracking and who suffer from chronic conditions. There was a study conducted by the New England Journal of Medicine that wanted to see if having an Apple Watch could detect symptoms of strokes and other related issues. The outcome of the study showed that of over 400,000 participants, 34% confirmed that through a medical visit due to detection, they all received early interventions to prevent future, severe signs of stroke.
- Patient care:Â
Electronic health records have been an AI technology that has been to see data, see the patterns in health, and aid in making health decisions. The algorithm helps create care plans and helps with the upcoming risks in a timely manner. A research was conducted by the BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, stating that AI tools have been beneficial for healthcare settings. Maxing the use of AI has helped with maintaining and supporting places like hospitals to improve their efficiency and current infrastructure.
- Mental Health Care:Â
AI has shown to be a form of “care” when it comes to the convenience of people to use for their mental health. Having it integrated into therapy platforms, AI chatbots have helped track and provide strategies to offer solutions around the clock. A study was conducted to show if an AI bot such as Woebot can help reduce symptoms of depression. Woebot became a therapy device for the treatment of depressive disorders among adult Americans from the ages of 18-65. We can conclude that after 8 weeks, it was clear that there were signs of improvement among the participants in depression, anxiety, and other health concerns.
- Public Health and Disease Predictions:Â
AI has been a huge tool in analyzing data to see disease and infection trends. Since COVID-19, this has helped researchers respond in a way that is beneficial for the overall population. With AI, you can use to understand how the virus is spreading, help with warnings, and overall create programs that help the safety from COVID and other infectious diseases. Published in 2021, there was a study that used AI to help forecast the future trends of COVID-19 in the United States and Japan. AI was very helpful in predicting the rates and other insights on improving public health measures. The paper also mentioned that AI-assisted epidemiology models help prepare for the infection.
There are a lot of applications of AI within medicine, data, and real-time tracking that have been shown to enhance patient outcomes, reduce costs, and make it efficient for all. There have been countless scientific studies that have shown what an asset AI has been and its future in healthcare. The future has a lot to hold for AI and the range of possibilities are endless.
