AI technology has been used in medicine for years and most recently helped us fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The benefits of AI can be seen in everything from drug development and research to patient care. Artificial intelligence will continue to be an essential tool in the healthcare industry; here are a few ways this technology has helped improve healthcare.
AI Can Help Researchers Develop New Drugs
AI can play a critical role in the development of new medications. For example, it can help researchers determine effective doses of drugs and identify possible side effects. AI can also be used to identify combinations of existing medications most likely to be effective for certain patients.
The use of AI has led to many new techniques for drug discovery and development. For example, one research team used an algorithm called “A Neural Network Model” to analyze patient health records. At the same time, they were being treated with cancer drugs at Stanford University Hospital & Clinics. The algorithm identified patterns between healthy and unhealthy patients that could help doctors better predict which treatment options would work best for individual patients in the future.
Surgery Assistance
AI has also been successfully used to assist with complicated surgeries. For instance, AI can help doctors plan and execute procedures by running simulations for practice or providing individual statistics and information about the patient they are working with. More importantly, though—AI offers real-time feedback on the patient’s condition during a procedure. This allows doctors to receive immediate feedback during surgeries and avoid potential mistakes while staying connected with other professionals who can assist with the procedure if needed.
You might think that having an artificial intelligence system available would be too much for a surgeon (or any other medical professional), but studies have shown otherwise; instead of being distracting or overwhelming, these systems improve performance because they provide valuable information about what is happening during surgery without requiring constant attention from other doctors.
Virtual Assistants and At-Home Care
AI virtual assistants can help schedule routine appointments and remind people about medication needs or other vital tasks to take care of at home. A virtual assistant can also help patients manage their conditions at home, such as chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension. With the right tools, these assistants can monitor a patient’s health conditions in real-time, provide detailed reports on what is happening with their body and send alerts when something goes wrong. This could include anything from low blood sugar levels in patients with diabetes to elevated heart rates for those who suffer from cardiac problems.
In addition to helping people understand how they can improve their health on an ongoing basis through personalized coaching sessions, AI could significantly improve healthcare services by assisting doctors in identifying any issues that arise during treatment plans before they become critical problems for patients. These capabilities work together to help patients gain greater control over their healthcare and stay more efficiently connected to their providers.
Vaccine Development
You may have heard of RNA, also known as ribonucleic acid. RNA is a molecule that carries genetic information throughout the body through a sequence of nucleotides. It plays an essential role in developing mRNA vaccines, which are made up of artificial viruses containing mRNA fragments (genes). These fragments can be used to treat diseases such as cancer and HIV by activating immune cells to produce antibodies that fight off disease-causing pathogens.
The biopharma industry depends on expert manufacturing companies such as Avantor to help them develop “breakthrough treatment options for many of the world’s most challenging diseases and chronic conditions.” During the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers raced to create an mRNA vaccine that could stop the spread of the disease. Artificial intelligence was essential for the research and development of these vaccines. AI can be used to quickly search through and sort millions of strands of DNA at once to find anomalies and RNA. Without AI, the development of these vaccines would take years.
Track the Spread of Disease
When a pandemic hits, healthcare workers monitor infectious diseases, respond to outbreaks, and predict where they’ll strike next. AI technology makes it easier for hospitals to keep tabs on potential threats by providing them with more accurate data.
AI can help predict when and where an outbreak will strike by analyzing patterns from past episodes and current reports and identifying markers that indicate spread is imminent (like increased travel). It can also forecast how many people need vaccines based on population density, which helps doctors know how much medicine is required for specific areas. By predicting the spread of disease, artificial intelligence also assists lawmakers in designing policies that help battle the pandemic and protect populations ahead of time.
Also read: How To Evaluate Whether You’re Eligible For A PFAS Contamination Lawsuit
Temperature Checks and Facial Recognition
During the COVID pandemic, temperature checks and face masks became the norm when going out in public, attending events, etc. Artificial intelligence was essential for regulating large crowds and performing mass temperature checks on individuals within busy areas. When entering large grocery stores worldwide, customers were automatically temperature checked by a computer at the store entrance. This computer constantly checks customers’ temperatures and will send an alert to the store staff if anyone appears to be running a high temperature. Artificial intelligence became so advanced that it could be used to identify individuals through facial recognition even when they wore their face masks. These applications were critical when fighting the spread of the pandemic.
In the future, we can expect more AI technology development. As more research is conducted and advancements are made, we will see more ways that AI can be used to improve healthcare and boost our quality of life.