Can AI Be Used in Medicine?

Check out this answer from Consensus:

AI is increasingly being integrated into various aspects of medicine, from disease diagnosis and personalized treatment to clinical decision support and medical imaging. While AI offers significant benefits in improving diagnostic accuracy, treatment personalization, and operational efficiency, practical implementation challenges remain. Overcoming these hurdles will be crucial for the widespread adoption and effective utilization of AI in healthcare.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has shown significant potential in various medical fields, leveraging its ability to analyze complex data and assist in decision-making processes. The following synthesis highlights the key insights from multiple research papers on the application of AI in medicine.

Key Insights

• Disease Diagnosis and Prediction
  • AI technologies, particularly deep learning and neural networks, are extensively used for disease diagnosis and predicting outbreaks of diseases such as influenza, Zika, Ebola, Tuberculosis, and COVID-191 4 5.
  • AI is applied in brain care for diagnosis, surgical planning, and outcome prediction, improving clinicians’ decision-making abilities2.
• Personalized Medicine
  • AI techniques are effective in precision medicine, particularly for neoplasms, by using genetic and phenotypic data to personalize treatment regimes10.
  • AI supports the customization of treatment paths and precision therapies for complex illnesses4 5.
• Clinical Decision Support
  • AI assists in clinical decision-making by analyzing patient data, predicting disease spread, and optimizing care trajectories for chronic disease patients4 5 6.
  • AI systems like IBM Watson are used for early detection, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis evaluation in stroke and other major diseases9.
• Medical Imaging and Diagnostics
  • AI is successfully applied in image analysis for radiology, pathology, and dermatology, often exceeding the diagnostic speed and accuracy of medical experts4.
  • AI algorithms are used for intra-operative assistance and postoperative assessment in brain surgeries2.
• Drug Discovery and Development
  • AI technologies, including Bayesian nonparametric models, are used in drug discovery and clinical trial design, making the process more efficient and cost-effective1 6.
• Robotics and Surgery
  • AI-driven robotic systems, such as those used in urologic and gynecologic surgeries, enhance surgical precision and outcomes3.
  • Targeted nanorobots represent a novel drug delivery system, showcasing the physical branch of AI in medicine3.
• Challenges and Practical Implementation
  • Despite advancements, real-world clinical implementation of AI faces challenges such as data sharing, privacy, algorithm transparency, and interoperability8.
  • Addressing these challenges requires regulatory changes and interdisciplinary strategies for broader AI adoption in healthcare8.

Can AI be used in medicine?

Scott E. Fahlman has answered Near Certain

An expert from Carnegie Mellon University in Artificial Intelligence

Yes, in many ways. Even the earliest AI systems could do a pretty good job of suggesting a diagnosis or an appropriate drug to us, based on a set of symptoms. Current systems can do a very good job of detecting abnormal cells in a biopsy image or suspicious shadows in a mammogram. Some robotic systems can assist in surgery.

In most such applications, the AI contribution is as a tool, with a human expert still in charge.

Can AI be used in medicine?

David Tuffley has answered Near Certain

An expert from Griffith University in Artificial Intelligence, Software Science

Certainly. In Japan in recent times a woman with a rare form of leukemia was misdiagnosed by her human doctors. “Dr Watson” (IBM’s medical AI) was enlisted. The lady had her genome sequenced and was fed into Dr Watson along with several million oncological studies. In around 11 minutes Watson had processed all this data and produced the correct diagnosis together with a recommended treatment regimen. The patient was cured, and it was a team effort – human doctor + medical AI. It is said she is the first person in Japan to have “her life saved by a computer”.

Can AI be used in medicine?

Zdenka Kuncic has answered Likely

An expert from University of Sydney in Artificial Intelligence, Astrophysics

Yes, to augment, but not replace, human expertise and knowledge.

Can AI be used in medicine?

Kay Kirkpatrick has answered Near Certain

An expert from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Mathematics, Artificial Intelligence

Yes, this already happens. Neural networks are pretty good at classifying medical images, and the combination of AI and medical provider seems to be even better than either one alone.

Can AI be used in medicine?

Mark Lee has answered Near Certain

An expert from Aberystwyth University in Computer Science

AI is already being used in many ways in medicine and health related industries. Some examples: robot surgery for specific bone and organ operations; AI diagnosis of x-rays for breast and prostate cancer; automated testing of pathology samples; speeding up the development of new drugs; knowledge-based advice generation for medical staff. In many of these tasks the AI program can outperform humans. From this impressive progress you might think doctors will eventually become redundant. However, as IBM found when building their Watson system for answering questions about medical decisions, the best outcomes are always produced when humans and algorithms work in collaboration. We need to use AIs as tools with human oversight and combined with human judgement. The robot doctor might be a nice idea but they will never replace humans.