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