A piece of software is called artificial intelligence (AI) when it simulates the capacity to replicate
intelligent human behavior, perform computations instantly, solve problems, and assess new data
based on previously evaluated information.
Imaging, treatment, enhancing doctors' intelligence, new drug discovery, precision, and
preventive medicine, extensive biological data analysis, process acceleration, and data storage
and access for health organizations are just a few of the ways artificial intelligence (AI)
applications in healthcare have transformed the medical industry. However, there are several
moral and legal issues in this scientific sector. Even though artificial intelligence (AI) has
advanced significantly in communities and can help improve therapy, not all societies can access
it.
The newest technologies are still inaccessible in many developing and low-income nations. It
should be mentioned that deploying AI presents several difficulties, including moral
conundrums, informed permission, privacy and data protection, social gaps, medical advice,
empathy, and sympathy. Therefore, practitioners and experts should take into account all four
medical ethics principles—autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice—in all facets of
healthcare before incorporating artificial intelligence into the healthcare system.
The following are the benefits of AI in Health Care;
Prediction of Risks and Diseases
ML models can be used to forecast populations at risk of specific diseases or accidents, and AI
algorithms, like deep learning, help in disease classification and allow for more individualized
care. AI uses big data to predict diseases and evaluate risk exposure among patients. For
instance, Google works with health delivery networks to develop prediction models that notify
clinicians of high-risk illnesses like sepsis and heart failure.
Prevention and Control of Diseases
AI has a big potential to help prevent and manage illnesses. For example, by enhancing
surveillance and intervention, artificial intelligence (AI) can improve the prevention and control
of STIs. AI can forecast the prevalence of syphilis at the county level by analyzing publicly
accessible social media data, allowing for quicker and more effective monitoring. AI can also
detect and flag false material about STIs and analyze web data trends to lessen the stigma around
STI prevention and care.
Data-Driven Decision Making
AI makes it possible for the healthcare system to make better data-driven judgments. The
accuracy and accessibility of underlying data are critical to the quality of decision-making in a
digitalized healthcare setting. By providing real-time recommendations based on clinical
guidelines or breakthroughs, AI can help with decision-making and lower the risk of medical
errors. IBM Watson Health, for instance, employs machine learning (ML) to support clinical
decisions and has a high degree of agreement with doctors' recommendations.
Improvement in Surgery
AI has significantly improved surgical techniques. Robotic surgery improves surgical accuracy
and predictability in fields like gynecologic, prostate, oral, and maxillofacial surgery. AI-
powered tele surgical techniques allow for remote operation and improve surgeon oversight. To
improve surgical results, AI-powered surgical mentorship enables experienced surgeons to
provide other surgeons with real-time advice and direction during procedures.
Mental Health Support.
Because patients want quick and easy feedback, the use of AI in mental health therapies is
expanding. Since language is the main way that we express our emotional and mental health,
psychiatric experts have traditionally used therapeutic discourse and patient narrative to evaluate
mental health. New insights into the topic have been made possible by recent developments in
AI, which allow technology to deduce emotional meaning from a wider range of data sources.
Habermann claims that data scientists have created algorithms to understand human emotion
from text by combining sentiment analysis and natural language processing in a novel way.
According to Le Glaz et al., NLP models have been employed in recent years to detect suicidal
thoughts in clinical notes, predict online suicide risk, and follow mental self-disclosure on
Twitter. In medicine, these models provide comprehensive information about a patient's mental
and emotional well-being. (Lovejoy et al.).
Reduction in Posttreatment Expenditures.
Based on patient profiles, AI-powered systems are able to examine posttreatment result trends
and choose the best treatments. The costs of posttreatment problems, a key contributor to health
care systems' global costs, can be considerably decreased with this individualized approach to
care. AI can reduce the financial burden of posttreatment problems and result in significant cost
savings by offering prompt diagnosis and suitable therapies.
Cost Saving Through Early Diagnosis.
AI has shown exceptional speed and accuracy in analyzing medical pictures, including
mammograms, which has helped diagnose diseases like breast cancer early. AI can assist in
lowering health care expenses related to late-stage diagnoses by facilitating early diagnosis and
action before problems worsen. Furthermore, AI's great accuracy in processing and interpreting a
variety of medical tests, including computed tomography scans, lowers the possibility of
physician error and saves money.
Cost Saving with Enhanced Clinical Trials.
The medication development process in clinical trials can be optimized by AI-powered
computers that can simulate and assess a large number of prospective treatments to forecast their
efficacy against different diseases. AI speeds up the assessment of possible treatments by
utilizing biomarker monitoring frameworks and analyzing vast amounts of patient data, which
significantly reduces the cost of developing life-saving drugs.
Patient Empowerment.
AI has the potential to help people take charge of their health. Standard health data can be
gathered by wearable technology, such as smartwatches, and then analyzed by AI algorithms to
deliver individualized health advice and disease warnings. Healthier populations and lower
healthcare costs can result from patients with chronic illnesses managing their symptoms more
effectively with the use of smartphone apps that employ machine learning algorithms.
Relieving Medical Practitioners’ Workload.
By helping with data analysis, picture interpretation, and administrative duties, artificial
intelligence (AI) technologies can reduce the workload for healthcare professionals. AI can help
diagnose a variety of medical diseases, automate administrative tasks, and analyze patient data
more effectively. It also helps physicians save time and resources by decreasing manual Labor
and prioritizing priority cases, which eventually results in higher productivity and better patient
care.
Risks of AI in Health Care
AI Diagnosis Is Not Always Superior to Human Diagnosis.
AI may increase the accuracy of diagnosis; however, it is not always better than human
diagnosis. Although they did not surpass human diagnosticians, early AI systems, such as the
MYCIN software created in the 1970s, showed promise in the diagnosis and treatment of
diseases. For these RBES to be useful and efficient, they required improved connection with
clinical workflows and medical record systems. Furthermore, overfitting in AI models might
result in erroneous predictions when applied to new instances by creating unrelated correlations
between patient characteristics and outcome
Challenges in Understanding and Ambition of AI Programs
AI algorithms may be difficult for doctors to comprehend, especially in complex fields like
cancer diagnosis and therapy. The emphasis on precision medicine in IBM's Watson program,
which blends machine learning and natural language processing, attracted notice. However, AI
has been challenging to design Watson to handle specific cancer kinds and integrate it into care
systems and processes. AI programs' aspirations, including taking on complicated cancer
treatments, might be beyond their present capacity.
Implementation Issues
There are various obstacles to overcome when implementing AI in healthcare. Although RBES
are frequently employed in electronic health care systems, they might not be as accurate as
algorithmic solutions that use machine learning. These RBES find it difficult to manage vast
volumes of data and stay up to date with changing medical understanding. Successful adoption is
hampered by the absence of empirical data demonstrating the effectiveness of AI-based therapies
in prospective clinical trials. A large portion of AI research in healthcare remains preclinical and
unvalidated in real-world settings. Successful deployment requires integration into physician
workflow; yet, there are few examples of AI being used in clinical therapy, and teaching doctors
how to utilize AI efficiently might take a lot of time.
Lack of Transparency and Risks with Data Sharing
Reliance on AI could result in automated decision-making, which would reduce patient-provider
interaction and communication.
Because data sharing has hazards, the quick rise of new technology in healthcare has raised
criticism. Public awareness is required. Concerns of privacy, permission, accountability, and
openness are raised by the use of intelligent computers in healthcare decision-making. It can be
difficult to comprehend and interpret AI systems, such as deep learning algorithms used in
picture analysis.
Physicians may find it difficult to explain the medical treatment procedure to patients if they
don't understand how AI models operate within. expanded standards that guarantee transparency
and data governance while also enhancing patient comprehension of the methods and purposes
of data utilization. The gathering of massive data sets and the possibility that AI may be able to
predict personal information raise privacy concerns. Patients might feel that their privacy has
been violated, particularly if the results are disclosed to outside parties.
It is ethically necessary to obtain informed consent for data use and to respect patient
confidentiality. Patients' psychological and reputational harm can be avoided by protecting AI
systems against privacy violations. Concerns over privacy violations have been highlighted by
recent events, such as Cambridge Analytica's exploitation of Facebook personal data and the
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust's sharing of patient data without express
authorization.
Biases and Discrimination
Predictions based on noncausal characteristics, such as gender or ethnicity, might result from
algorithmic bias in health care machine learning systems. Among the dangers of healthcare AI
are prejudice and inequality. Inaccurate results may arise from biases in the data used to train AI
systems, particularly if specific racial or gender groups are underrepresented. In certain patient
populations, unrepresentative data may result in an overestimation or underestimating of risk,
which can further exacerbate health disparities.
Mistakes in Disease Diagnosis and Lack of Accountability
AI systems may diagnose and treat patients incorrectly, which could be harmful. It can be
difficult to hold AI systems responsible because of liability issues with mistakes and
responsibility distribution. Deep learning algorithms' lack of explanation may undermine
scientific understanding and legal accountability, which could erode patients' faith in the system.
Holding the developer accountable might be too far from the clinical context, while holding the
doctor liable might seem unfair, making it difficult to determine who should be held responsible
for AI errors. It is still unclear who should be held responsible when AI systems malfunction.
Data Availability and Accessibility
AI systems in healthcare must be trained using vast volumes of data from multiple sources.
However, because health data is dispersed across several platforms and systems, obtaining it can
be difficult. There is a lack of data in the healthcare industry, and hospitals frequently don't want
to share their data. Organizational resistance might make it challenging to continuously provide
data for ML-based systems to be improved. The issue of restricted data sets can be addressed
with the use of enhanced algorithms and technological developments.
Regulatory Concerns
Because algorithms change constantly with use, the autolearn aspect of AI software presents
regulatory issues. To guarantee patient safety, this necessitates the implementation of extra
regulations and procedures. The lack of clear legislative criteria for evaluating the safety of AI
algorithms in many nations can impede AI auto-learn choices and encourage dangerous
behavior. For instance, the accountability problem is made more difficult by the absence of
industry guidelines regarding the moral application of AI in healthcare. Regulatory approval is
hampered by the Food and Drug Administration's and the National Health Service's continuous
efforts to create standards and guidelines.
Social Challenges
Skepticism and reluctance to AI-based therapies stem from misconceptions about AI replacing
healthcare jobs. However, the advent of AI does not necessarily mean that jobs would become
obsolete; rather, it means that jobs will need to be reengineered. A deeper comprehension of AI's
potential and significant public discussion is necessary to dispel mistrust and promote trust in the
technology. Therefore, Increasing the knowledge of AI among public and medical professionals
is crucial for controlling expectations and resolving issues.
REFERENCES.
https://www.i-jmr.org/2024/1/e53616
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8826344/
https://www.ibm.com/think/insights/ai-healthcare-benefits
