By Tatiana Cañas, Media Specialist at Kizuna Tech

Technology is advancing faster than most of us can imagine. Every day we hear news about technological advances that we once thought impossible. Artificial intelligence is one of those advances that may be hard to grasp and fully understand. However, AI is not as scary as it may look in television or Netflix hits like Black Mirror, where AI-powered experiments take a turn for the worst. In fact, the opposite is true; machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processes have been proven beneficial for many industries.

The Use of AI in Medicine

The use of AI in medicine has become more notorious in recent years. Though it has existed for some years, it has recently become more accepted, while still raising ethical concerns for some people.

AI keeps getting smarter with time which makes it extremely beneficial for healthcare applications. It can be used for various purposes, but some important ones are its ability to optimize tasks and improve efficiency, allowing medical staff to focus on critical procedures. According to studies done in 2016, doctors often spend more time on their computers than they do with patients. On average, for every hour they spend face-to-face with their patients, doctors spend two hours doing computer work. That computer work consists of updating medical records, recording data, classifying patients based on specific criteria and other tasks that could easily be automated with AI.

How AI Works

Just like any professional, AI algorithms need to learn to do their jobs and tasks well. This happens as they gain information as more data is gathered and processed through Machine Learning models. Specialists program the algorithms to recognize speech, patterns and images, for example. AI is used to complete repetitive tasks and can even outdo humans. For that reason, AI is often utilized for diagnosis and treatment as it knows exactly what to pay attention to and what its findings mean. 

AI algorithms can recognize and draw answers from numerical data like blood pressure or through images like MRI scans, but this may vary according to the organization’s needs.

Impact of AI in the Medical Field

• Fast and Accurate Diagnostics: Quickly and accurately detect data that does not look right. This ensures accurate and faster diagnoses.

• Reduced Human Errors: Medicine experts have no room for error. However, as humans, we make mistakes. Fatigue is one of the main causes for human error and it is a cause that is hard to avoid. However, AI does not suffer from fatigue and can be extremely accurate.

• Cost-efficient: Implementing an artificial intelligence strategy can result in measurable and positive ROI.  The limitations and wide array of uses for this ever-growing field are endless. People come and go, societies are ever-changing, but AI algorithms only get better. 

Will AI Replace Doctors?

Yes and no. AI could replace humans in tasks that are necessary but monotonous. However, our dependence on human abilities is still present. AI will not replace doctors in that aspect anytime soon. So, as opposed to looking at AI as something that will outdo humans, we should look at it as a technology that enhances and complements human capabilities. 

Thanks to AI, doctors will be able to focus more on their patients while making sure that medical records will stay up to date, that diagnostics will be accurate, that the right treatment will be provided, and much more 

If you have data and would like to know how Kizuna Tech can help you leverage that data to your favor, contact us.