Role of AI and Robots in Health Sector

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is set to revolutionize our lives in more ways than one. Called the next big thing in the realm of technology, it will help humans do their everyday tasks more competently and swiftly. In fact, AI and robotics are gradually becoming a part of our healthcare eco-system as well.

So far, we have seen chatbots at pharmacies already, right? But the implementation goes further than these common instances.

Below are five of the five domains in which AI will have an important role to play.

Assistance in Surgery

Information from pre-op medical records can be processed by robots to direct the surgeon’s instrument during surgery, leading to a 21 percent reduction in a patient’s hospital stay.

Robot-assisted surgery is termed “minimally invasive” to prevent patients from healing from large incisions. Robots can use data from past operations, using artificial intelligence, to perform new surgical procedures.

AI Nursing Assistants

Virtual nursing assistants can save the healthcare sector $20 billion annually, from interacting with patients to guiding them to the most appropriate care setting.

Due to the 24/7 availability of virtual nurses, they are able to give advice, monitor patients and provide quick responses. Many virtual nursing assistant applications now allow more frequent communication between patients and care providers during office visits to avoid readmission to hospitals or repeated hospital visits.

Robotic Dentists

The robot doctors will not be replacing the actual office doctors. But a dentist robot can do a lot better. It is all about dental implant procedures which can be troublesome if the procedure is messed by human error. The robot shuns problems of this kind. Moreover, the shortage of dentists in many countries around the world will also be overcome. It is remarkable to have robots perform dental surgery with a minimum margin of error. Even more compelling is the teeth implanted by the robot which were created using 3D printing technology.

Diagnosis and Treatment

Diagnosis and disease treatment have been an AI emphasis since the 1970s. IBM’s Watson for Health allows health-care organizations leverage cognitive technology to access large amounts of health data and support diagnosis. Watson will review and store much more medical information— every medical journal, diagnosis, and case study of treatment and reaction worldwide— significantly faster than almost any human being.

The technology incorporates machine learning and neuroscience systems to create efficient general-purpose learning algorithms into the neural networks that simulate the human brain.

Radiology Tools

Radiological images collected from MRI machines, CT scanners, and X-rays offer non-invasive visibility of the human body’s inner workings. However, many diagnostic procedures also focus on samples of human tissue obtained by biopsies that carry risks like the possibility for infection.

Experts predict that artificial intelligence would enable the next generation of radiology tools that are reliable and flawless to eliminate the need for tissue samples in certain cases.

Consumer Health Applications

One of the major potential benefits of AI is to help people stay healthy so they don’t need a doctor, or at least not as often as they do. Using AI and the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) also help people in consumer health applications.

Technology systems and apps promote healthier human behaviors and help proactively manage a healthy lifestyle. This keeps the health and wellbeing of customers in control.

In fact, AI enhances the potential of healthcare professionals to better understand the everyday patterns and needs of the people they care for and to have better feedback, support and guidance to stay healthy with that understanding.

Conclusion

With all the aforementioned details, it’s obvious that AI can reduce the potential for human error in healthcare, and can make clinicians more effective. It has the potential to improve patient access and simplify health-care services procedures.

The growing implementation of AI in the medical sector is part of the inevitable development. We already see huge advantages which outweigh the potential for disadvantages.