Paging Dr. Chatbot 🤖🩺

Why AI will revolutionize healthcare

December 08, 2023

Welcome to Answers on AI: making you smarter about artificial intelligence, one email at a time.

Today we want to help you get smarter about a topic that bridges technology and human well-being: the future impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the healthcare industry, particularly in medical care.

Let’s jump right into it. Today’s question is:

What role will AI play in advancing healthcare and personalized medicine?

AI is set to completely transform the healthcare industry. Here are some things you should know:

  • 🤖 AI, The New Doctor in Town: AI is swiftly becoming an indispensable tool in healthcare. By analyzing vast datasets, AI can identify patterns invisible to the human eye, leading to earlier and more accurate diagnoses. In the future, we might see AI systems not only assisting in diagnosing diseases but also recommending personalized treatment plans based on a patient's genetic makeup, lifestyle, and previous health records. This could significantly improve treatment effectiveness and patient outcomes.

  • 💊 Custom Pills at Your Fingertips: Personalized medicine is on the verge of a revolution, thanks to AI. Soon, we could see AI algorithms designing custom medications tailored to an individual's DNA, potentially reducing side effects and increasing efficacy. This means that treatments for chronic illnesses like cancer or diabetes could be more effective, with medications designed for each patient's unique biological makeup.

  • 🚑 Emergency Responses Get a Brain Boost: AI is set to transform emergency care. By quickly analyzing a patient's symptoms, medical history, and even their speech or facial expressions, AI could help first responders make life-saving decisions faster. Looking ahead, AI could even predict medical emergencies before they happen, by continuously monitoring patients' health data and alerting healthcare providers to potential risks.

  • 🧬 Genome Gurus: The future of genomics is intertwined with AI. With the ability to process and understand complex genetic data at an unprecedented scale, AI is making it easier for scientists to uncover how different genes influence health and disease. This could lead to breakthroughs in understanding complex conditions like heart disease, Alzheimer's, and various forms of cancer.

  • ⚠️ The Bumpy Road Ahead: While the potential of AI in healthcare is immense, there are significant challenges. Issues like data privacy, ethical concerns, and the potential for AI to perpetuate biases present in historical data cannot be overlooked. Ensuring AI's development is guided by ethical principles and is inclusive of diverse datasets will be crucial for its successful integration into healthcare.

What do the experts say?

Now, let’s hear from some experts on the topic:

“The one thing to note about these neural networks is they just… they’re autodidactic; they just get better and better. They have insatiable desire for data, whereas humans get early satiety for data. So, you know, we get distracted, we have bad days, we have bad moods. Machines, they don’t need vacations, they’re… they… we can all get sick of course, but for the most part there are... if we lean on machines, we can do some great things to get healthcare at a higher plateau.”

— Dr. Eric Topol, from an Interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune

“Other than privacy concerns, the use of AI also comes with a series of ethical dilemmas. For one, the results of AI rely heavily on the data they are built upon. Thus, if the original training data contains biases due to factors such as lack of diversity, the AI system may perpetuate the same biases. Inequitable healthcare outcomes may follow suit. Another ethical qualm comes with transparency and liability. A key value of modern healthcare is the concept of informed consent — meaning patients have the right to fully understand their treatment and its implication before making a decision. With the complexity of AI, it may become harder to establish trust with and ensure maximum comprehension of patients. Furthermore, if AI generates errors or harm, it may become difficult to discern accountability using traditional models.”

— Kyle Lee and Renesh Gudipati, from The Promise and Perils of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine

“That is a dangerous path, and we know where it leads. AI systems reflect the humans who build them, and they are riddled with biases… As AI is rolled out in health care to help make some of the highest-stake decisions there are, it’s more crucial than ever to critically examine how these systems are built. Even if we manage to create a perfect algorithm with zero bias, algorithms lack the nuance and complexity to make decisions about humans and society on their own. We should carefully question how much decision-making we really want to turn over to AI. There is nothing inevitable about letting it deeper and deeper into our lives and societies. That is a choice made by humans.”

— Melissa Heikkilä, from Why AI shouldn’t be making life-and-death decisions

Answers on AI

Want to help your friends, family, and coworkers get smarter about AI? Just forward them this email!