Table of Contents
Introduction
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is on the cusp of radically transforming healthcare, not only making it far more accurate but also making it far less expensive at the exact same time.
The underlying technology behind AI has grown by leaps and bounds over the last few decades. This technology used to be considered little more than a pipe dream in the world of science fiction, but today it interfaces with most every single piece of technology we come in contact with – and not always in the most obvious and overt ways.
Sure, startups and technology titans in Silicon Valley aren’t shy about trumpeting their latest and greatest updates to AI, shoehorning them into consumer devices like mobile phones and tablets that make our lives a lot easier and certainly a lot more convenient.
But other companies are focused on tackling some of the world’s largest problems with the help of artificial intelligence, including many that are focused almost exclusively on using AI to radically transform the world of healthcare in the US and throughout the world.
According to statistics published by the OECD, nearly 20% of all money spent on healthcare is literally wasted around the world. And that’s on the low end of the scale as far as estimates are concerned. The US Institute of Medicine actually believes this figure to be closer to 30%, which means that for every dollar spent on healthcare $0.30 is thrown right out the window.
That’s a huge problem and a big part of why healthcare in the US (and throughout the world) continues to be so expensive even though every other industry has taken advantage of new technology and innovation to cut costs and improve products and services.
It is, however, important to realize that a lot of this healthcare waste isn’t done intentionally but instead is part and parcel with a healthcare approach that is so inefficient in a variety of different ways. These inefficiencies lead to a lot of redundancy and a lot of waste, jack up the prices, and compromise the kinds of services individuals are able to take advantage of.
But that’s where artificial intelligence comes into play.
2020 is definitely going to be the year that AI breaks through in the healthcare world in a big way, shaking things up significantly and paving the way for even bigger innovations in the next decade to come that will have healthcare turned totally upside down (for all the right reasons).
No, we aren’t quite at the point where artificial intelligence driven robot surgeons are guaranteeing 100% effective results in a way that human hands never could – but we are closer to that reality today than we have ever been in human history.
Fifth Geek did some research and here are just a couple of ways that AI is poised to radically transform the world of healthcare in 2020 and beyond.
More Effective Treatment Recommendations
The success or failure of artificial intelligence in the world of healthcare really boils down to the availability of data to make informed decisions.
Thankfully, the healthcare world has been accumulating piles and piles of Big Data over the last half-century or more with modern AI able to crunch, analyze, and leverage all of that information to help doctors and healthcare professionals make more effective treatment recommendations in record time.
This is especially true today as we see healthcare professionals starting to move away from a decentralized record collecting approach to a more standardized, streamlined, and collaborative format that records patient information and data.
All of this information can be analyzed by modern AI to provide customized and highly accurate treatment protocols, implementing and even more personalized approach to care than what’s possible today.
Sure, seeing your doctor – your specific doctor – on a regular basis helps to provide for that personal touch we all look for in healthcare today. But when you realize that these personal doctors are seeing hundreds of patients a month, maxing out their bandwidth having to juggle all of that data and all of those clients at once, you realize just how impersonal this approach can be sometimes.
AI doesn’t have a bandwidth problem in that respect. AI does not get overwhelmed, does not get overloaded, and isn’t prone to making the same kind of mistakes and oversights human error inevitably brings to the table.
In 2020 we will see AI radically improve treatment protocols, streamline costs, and minimize post treatment complications.
Highly Effective Diagnostic Solutions
Artificial Intelligence is very much appreciated in the diagnostic part of the medical field, with physicians and medical professionals leveraging AI enabled scans and systems that reduce human error as much as possible.
There’s already an Israeli based AI start up company that has pioneered new artificial intelligence algorithms that are capable of outperforming human beings when it comes to early detection of serious diseases and illnesses.
On top of that, US-based AI diagnostic tool has already been proven to have a greater than 99% accuracy rating when reviewing mammograms, all while doing so 30 times faster than human medical professionals could.
This not only produces more accurate diagnosis results for individuals that may be facing serious health complications, but it also guarantees earlier detection as these tests aren’t sitting in a laboratory waiting to be analyzed for weeks on end until someone can get around to it.
2020 is certainly going to be the year we start to see AI enabled diagnostic tools really explode in the healthcare world, particularly as the science behind AI is improved on and optimized. The beautiful thing about AI is that it is constantly “under development”, learning and relearning how to improve itself which is only going to make AI even more impressive in the future than it already is.
AI Empowers Healthcare Patients
The last big trend in artificial intelligence we want to highlight here for 2020 and beyond is the way that AI is going to empower individuals to make smarter decisions for our healthcare moving forward.
Wearable technology that interfaces with our smart phones, tablets, and our PCs (as well as cloud computing solutions) give AI solutions all the data they need to help people better understand their overall health and wellness levels.
With this data AI can make recommendations about how to improve everything from our sleep patterns to our exercise habits to the foods that we eat on a day-to-day basis.
Best of all, when used in conjunction with wearable technology, artificial intelligence can provide a truly custom tailored suite of recommendations based off of our individual data while at the same time analyzing and comparing that information to the entirety of the data collected by everyone using the same technology, the same apps, and the same services.
Final Words
All of this puts more information in the hands of individuals, provides for a lot more transparency, and helps us to be cognizant of all the habits and behavior that have an impact on our health and wellness on a day-to-day basis. Make no mistake about it, artificial intelligence is going to be behind the biggest breakthroughs in the world of healthcare and medicine not only in 2020 but for years and years to come.
References:
- https://thenextweb.com/artificial-intelligence/2019/12/17/8-biggest-ai-trends-of-2020-according-to-experts/
- https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/05/four-ways-ai-is-bringing-down-the-cost-of-healthcare/
- https://www.wired.co.uk/article/cancer-risk-ai-mammograms
- https://www.healthitoutcomes.com/doc/can-ai-machine-learning-make-healthcare-cheaper-0001
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/will-artificial-intelligence-improve-health-care-for-everyone-180972758/
Leave a Reply