Like any emerging technology, artificial intelligence has the potential to greatly benefit humanity or inflict significant harm. Health sector experts are emphasizing AI’s promise to increase efficiency and improve patient care.
AI is increasingly becoming part of our everyday lives, with the easy-to-use interface ChatGPT hitting the market. But it’s been around for a while in the health realm. In fact, medical professionals have been familiar with this innovation for years. The first AI algorithm was cleared by the Food and Drug Administration in 1995 and just under 50 algorithms were approved over the subsequent 20 years.
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However, approvals and usage for AI have grown rapidly in the past decade, with more than half of all healthcare algorithms approved since 2019.
Today, more than 520 marker-cleared AI medical algorithms are available in the United States. According to the FDA, a majority of these are focused on radiology, including diagnostic aids, image reconstructions, anatomical identification, and data mining. These provide undertrained people the ability to attain medical-grade images through devices such as smartphones by instructing the user on how to move the device to capture the correct image. This new technique will now provide the ability to perform medical imaging by anyone at any time or place.
FDA clearance is not required if AI programs do not directly affect clinical care. These algorithms are commonly used for patient data sorting and population health and provide sources for additional care or resources to patients. Moreover, clinicians can use these technologies to bypass lengthy medical data reporting that distracts from patient interactions and often leads to burnout. Now, synthetic notes may be formatted during conversations between doctors and patients within the visit.
In India, Apollo, the nation’s largest hospital system, has launched its AI-run application, similar to ChatGPT, known as “Clinical Intelligence Engine (CIE),” available to all clinicians for free.
Dr. Sangita Reddy, joint managing director at Apollo Hospitals, recently said the idea was to take advantage of 40 years of Apollo’s clinical knowledge to create a support assistant for doctors in primary care. Shortly thereafter, the development of the Clinical Intelligence Engine was accelerated in order to respond to the pandemic.
According to Reddy, CIE uses probabilistic algorithms to determine clinical diagnosis with the ability to understand over 1,300 diseases and 800 unique symptoms. Reddy said the long-term goal is to improve public health.
In Ontario, Canada, another lab has utilized AI to improve breast cancer research. Traditionally, when a patient is diagnosed with breast cancer, they are subject to various imaging screenings to search for tumors. However, with AI, the lab can capture details of cancerous tumors prior systems couldn’t detect. The AI analyzes MRI data to learn whether a patient might benefit from chemotherapy through subtle patterns with predictive accuracy.
In the U.S., nearly 40% of people suffer from a chronic illness, patients who need consistent monitoring and care. However, our traditional system isn’t quite designed for around-the-clock care due to a traditional 9-5 working day on top of health access limitations for some geographical regions.
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There is where AI can make significant differences for these patients. New generations may now find their care complimented with 24/7 medical expertise from AI that can monitor patients who may have wearable devices, need prescription refills, or set reminders for exercise or routine medical appointments with a device congruent to Amazon’s Alexa application. Some of these technologies already exist but aren’t applied broadly nationwide. Yet, as patient care continues to prosper, AI is suspected to be the next-in-line solution.
Now, the FDA is considering new life cycle-based regulatory frameworks for more AI technologies that would provide room for real-time modifications while ensuring compliance of safety standards. Through live adjustments, health professionals hope to improve accuracy and up the standard of AI interfaces. If approved, the new process may afford more room for adaptive care in tech and strengthen the health system across the globe for generations to come.
