Artificial intelligence and medicine

If we search the database of PubMed, one of the most important search engines for scientific work in the field of health at an international level, we find that in the past five years, nearly 4000 scientific articles have been published on topics related to health, artificial intelligence and preventive diagnosis in medicine, 1434 Including between 2000 and the first five months of this year.

The interest in using AI and VR related tools in health research is due to the versatility these tools offer professionals.

How does artificial intelligence work in medicine? Part of the processing, analysis, and visualization of large databases and even images, which is known as big data, from which algorithms are designed that can find patterns in the analyzed data. In turn, these patterns make it possible to develop, for example, disease prevention and evaluation systems that adapt to the specific needs of each patient, but also allow monitoring of development after surgery or early diagnosis of degenerative diseases, among others.

This opens up a range of possibilities for designing smart, mostly portable devices that allow healthcare professionals to perform minimally invasive diagnostic tests, which take into account specific variables for each patient based on their own data. Once the results are obtained, the specialist will be able to issue a final diagnosis, suggest a treatment, or provide personalized follow-up.

Oncology, cardiovascular disease, reproductive medicine, sports medicine, and of course COVID-19 are some of the areas that are looking to integrate artificial intelligence and virtual reality into their research in order to create predictive models and rapid and reliable diagnostic techniques.

Companies like PathAI, which develops technology to help pathologists make rapid and accurate diagnoses, particularly in cases of cancer, or ENLITIC, which focuses on developing solutions for radiologists through artificial intelligence, have chosen to use this technology in their prototypes and devices. The artificial intelligence sector, one of the fastest growing industries, is expected to reach $150 billion by 2026.

Hence, international programs aimed at promoting research and development include more and more calls that focus on creating applications or devices focused on disease prevention or treatment through the use of artificial intelligence from various data analysis.

Claudia L Balcica Albizar

Member of Global MX Network, Spain Chapter