Skip to main content

AI and Health Care - Part II (New Methods)

Artificial Intelligence can be used to innovate our health system even more. It can be done either in the diagnosis phase, the medicine production, vaccine discovery, prediction of pandemics, and so on. We already discussed some examples in the diagnosis phase, now let's talk about using AI to bring new ways of doing your tasks.
Pills - Photo by freestocks on Unsplash
Developing a new medicine is difficult. It requires many hours of work and investing tons of money. Different steps are required to bring a new medicine into the market. Still, some of the new drugs prove to be a failure before even reaching the final stage. There is where AI can become such a powerful tool for saving money and focusing the research through the best type of drugs.

All started to be a real thing when we had the first robot founding some new gene functions in the yeast [1]. Another robot also discovered that a drug called triclosan, used in our toothpaste, can be used to fight against malaria parasites[2]. Nowadays, in the immuno-oncology and neuroscience field, BioXcel Therapeutics tries to develop new medicines, to identify new patients and also look for new applications to the existing drugs, all based on AI systems.
Planning - Photo by Alvaro Reyes on Unsplash
We are also seeing systems capable of handle the day-by-day struggles on hospitals such as schedule ambulances and draw the best route, prioritize patient treatment based on the injuries, organizing the hospitals' back office, and more difficult tasks. As an example of this kind of systems, we have Qventus.
Surgery - Photo by Piron Guillaume on Unsplash
The use of robots to assist our doctors is increasing over the world. Robots can be more precise than humans, leading to better results and quickest recoveries. Many robots are used in surgeries, and with their precision, the patients are recovering faster. We have many kind of assisting-robots. Robots that allows the doctor to virtually see the human organs through the skin. This brings up the possibility of minimally invasive surgeries (Vicarius Surgical). Robotic arms are also very powerful and used in cancerous tumours treatment, where they are very precise (Accuray), and on other tasks where we need the maximum level of precision. 
Prosthetic Arm - Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash
Another application to these robots, or parts of it, is trying to upgrade humans. Seems strange, isn't it? Well, imagine a person who lost a foot, a leg, an arm, or another body part. We can apply AI to the created human body parts and give the feeling of a natural hand or leg to the user. New studies are getting better results. Now, we have hand prosthetics where the user thinks about moving a finger, and it moves. All of these improvements use AI implementations to read signals. Some use ultrasounds readings, others the nerve signals. As an example, I will leave the Linx link and a useful article to get more information about other existing approaches. 

 AI can help us in every step during the treatment or discovery of a disease. And how about preparing us to new virus or diseases? Do you think we can use it as well? Let me know in the comments below.


References
  1. Robot Scientist - Department of Computer Science, Aberystwyth University. (n.d.). Retrieved April 12, 2020, from https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/cs/research/cb/projects/robotscientist/
  2. Williams, K., Bilsland, E., Sparkes, A., Aubrey, W., Young, M., Soldatova, L. N., … King, R. D. (2015). Cheaper faster drug development validated by the repositioning of drugs against neglected tropical diseases. Journal of The Royal Society Interface, 12(104), 20141289. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2014.1289

Etiquetas:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How does COVID-19 continue to spread? - A simulation 2.0 (How it was built)

 Unfortunately, the days we are living right now are still bad, or even worse than ever. Millions of people are being killed by this "new virus", as they called it once. COVID-19 is here and will be among us for too long. Some of us thought, incorrectly, 2021 will be the year, we will have vaccines, that's it! No more problems related to COVID-19! Let's start living as before!  No, no, no! If you still think this way, please stop it right now. By not respecting the known procedures to avoid the COVID-19 infection you will keep the virus spreading chain. Consequently, the virus will kill more people, being them related to you or not. Many apparently  healthy humans are having severe "side effects" by getting infected with this virus. Stop thinking the virus provokes just flu and help to stop the spread!  Millions of healthcare professionals are giving their lives to help in this war. You are neglecting them and all the people around you! Keep yourself safe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Artificial Intelligence History

As you know, AI today is a widely used tool in every kind of systems. However, how did it start? We had only one inventor or more people had invested in AI? AI is a recent discovery? When it became so powerful and why? Today's post will put you up to date to the Artificial Intelligence History. Alan Turing Well, everything started alongside the Second World War. Sadly, some of the human's biggest discoveries occurred during wars.  In 1943,  Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts presented an initial mathematical and computer model of the biological neuron [2].  There was 1950 when John Von Neumann and Alan Turing created the technology behind AI.  Turing created the called Bombe machine to decipher messages exchanged between the German forces. That system was the pillar of today's machine learning [1]. Turing was a huge impact in the Artificial Intelligence field, and still today some of his statements are updated and used.  Turing questioned the possible intellig...
2 comments
Read more

AI and Food Industy - The new Agriculture (Part II)

Being a farmer is not only making plants grow. Apart from all the care applied to the plants, they also need to collect what has been produced. The harvesting of agricultural products is one of the most difficult, and delicate stages in the food production chain. Harvesting strawberries - Photo by Farsai Chaikulngamdee on Unsplash Millions of people are employed in this process. It is a seasoned process what means temporary jobs. These jobs are mostly available in the summer season, where we reach the harvest phase for the majority of the plants. Many farmers dedicate themselves to fruit growth. In this agriculture's field, we have to take care of plants and then pick the fruits. As you may think, this is a hard and repetitive task. Image a farm with several acres of land. G etting all the fruits from the plants can take months and involve lots of people.  Hiring so many people is very expensive for farmers. Besides, people can harvest fruits inappropriately, reducing the fruit...
3 comments
Read more