AI INVADING our medical field

For our first EVER blog, we will be introducing the idea of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in medicine. Cool right! As we all know, we live in the age of information and technology and what better way to talk about it than to discuss the use of AI in the medical industry. Today, AI is built into our everyday lives in a number of ways, including personal assistants such as Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant, aviation, and video gaming which are all fun and convenient uses for artificial intelligence. More recently, AI has also started to be integrated into medicine to improve patient treatment by accelerating procedures and ensuring greater accuracy, opening the door to significantly better health care which is always a plus…. Or is it?

Pros:

So what is so good about these robot creature things that go around helping sick people? Well, exactly just that! AI allows for easier access to healthcare services. There is a significant gap between the richest and poorest nations in the provision of healthcare facilities. AI-based applications are being increasingly accessible now and are being used to improve access to medical diagnosis in developing countries.

Not only do they diagnose people but they do EARLY DIAGNOSIS! AI-driven applications have proved to help detect early illness risks since a collection of health apps have collected millions of signs, diagnoses and individual events that make it easier to anticipate potential health issues that a person might experience in the future. So imagine detecting that tumour but only 10 years earlier!

Shaky hands? Sweaty palms? Accidental slips? We don't know her!!! AI has unique and unrivalled assistance in surgery: the AI Surgical System requires the smallest and most precise motions to be done. Complex surgery is done with reduced pain, blood loss and a low chance of side effects. Maybe a robot surgeon is the way to go after all!

Also, AI helps people with disabilities and mental health problems like the use of smart limbs to help amputees and paralyzed people lead a form of normal life. There are several robots that come with built-in AI features that support patients with depression. But is it really all butterflies and rainbows?

Cons:

You said it just right Sara! Even with all these phenomenal things that AI will offer to the medical field, there is always something… something that is just not the same without real deal doctors. The most obvious one is, can I have a drum roll please,

The connection between a patient and their doctor.

The lack of personal involvement is simply a large issue because for these robotic machines to work quickly and efficiently, they won’t have emotions nor empathy or any of that. I mean can you imagine going to a hospital and your doctor is like “ The percent of you dying is 45%” without trying to sound like everything is gonna be alright or give you some motivational spirit?! It’s gonna be a bunch of robotic Shaun Murphy’s. So to emphasize, it is crucial that a patient can trust their doctor and that the doctor in return will do their utmost to save a patient’s life, however, we can’t really ensure this through the use of AI. Can we? What do you think?

The next one is a BIG one! Because it will impact the dreams of every student wishing to pursue a career in med. It’s basically going to be the “Hunger med games”. DID YOU THINK ABOUT WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN TO UNEMPLOYMENT RATES???? Of course you did right? Or did you? Are you an AI? ;)

Machines are currently replacing many jobs in the healthcare sector and with the rise of technology, more machines will be needed and less “Wannabe Medstudents” will get a chance to work. Already simple chatbots are being used in health apps that quickly analyze a patient’s condition, so imagine what it can do in a few years' time. This is amazing! But… there will be no need for a receptionist, a nurse for that checkup at the start of your consultation, no...no..n..ooo… doctor? And that scares us.

And here is a question for discussion: What would happen to doctors when they are no longer needed?

Thanks for reading! Give us an answer in the comments down below and have a wonderful day.

Sources used:

• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S002604951730015X

• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13645706.2019.1575882

• https://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/9-pros-and-cons-of-ai-adoption-in-healthcare/

• https://www.byteant.com/blog/ai-adoption-in-healthcare-10-pros-and-cons/