AI in Healthcare

Written by Judith Riess, MTM editor-in-chief

Big Data and AI will significantly change the face of healthcare around the world. With these tools healthcare providers will be able to more rapidly and more accurately diagnose and treat patients and avoid unnecessary surgeries and drugs. These tools will also relieve some of the pressure and burnout that healthcare providers face. The following are but a few of the initiatives underway.

These tools will allow patients and providers to interact witheach other in more meaningful ways and give patients and providers tools sopatients understand what they need to know to ensure they are part of their healthcareteam and that their provider has the best tools available to properly addresspatients’ care.

Last year, The Alliance for Artificial Intelligence inHealthcare (AAIH) was officially launched and held theorganization’s inaugural meeting.

AAIH brings together industry leaders to promote the use ofAI in healthcare and advocate for policies and regulations thatpromote rapid integration of the technology within the industry. AmazonWeb Services (AWS), Bayer, GE Healthcare and Owkin are among the foundingcompanies and organizations that make up its 22-person board of directors.

AAIH identified six standing committees to oversee AAIH’s workin promoting the advancement of AI. These committees are:

1. Education and accreditation
2. Federal engagement and regulatory affairs
3. Investment and commercialization
4. Communications
5. Technology and standards development
6. Industry performance and data analytics

“In selecting industry experts from established and emergingcompanies to lead AAIH, the Board demonstrated its commitment to theintegration of AI across the full spectrum of healthcare with the goal ofimproving patients’ lives by creating more efficient, sustainable andaccessible biomedical research and healthcare systems,” Annastasiah MudiwaMhaka, PhD, AAIH president and senior advisor with Adjuvant Partners, said in astatement.

The organization’s initial focus is on developingstrategies and initiatives aimed at educating the public about thebenefits and risks of AI, promoting investment in AI-related research anddevelopment, and working with government officials to develop regulatory andtechnology standards.

The U.K. Department of Health and Social Care recently issued anew code of conduct for AI systems toensure that only the safest AI-based systems are used by the National HealthService (NHS). The ten principles that make up the code of conduct wereestablished in 2018 and were drafted by a group of industry thoughtleaders, academics and patient groups to ensure expertise was gained from allcontributing groups. The principles are:

1. Understand users, their needs and the context
2. Define the outcome and how the technology will contribute to it
3. Use data that is in line with appropriate guidelines for thepurpose for which it is being used
4. Be fair, transparent and accountable about what data is beingused
5. Make use of open standards
6. Be transparent about the limitations of the data used andalgorithms deployed
7. Show what type of algorithm is being developed or deployed, theethical examination of how the data is used, how its performance will bevalidated and how it will be integrated into health and care provision
8. Generate evidence of effectiveness for the intended use andvalue for money
9. Make security integral to the design
10. Define the commercial strategy

The U.K.’s commitment to AI-based technologies has led to aninvestment of more than £1.3 billion (about $1.6 billion USD) tosupport AI-based healthcare innovations. Additionally, the U.K.government recently announced it will open five technologycenters dedicated to the utilization of AI-based innovations for diseasediagnosis.

AI-based technologies are being used across the NHS in a varietyof ways, including improving the early diagnosis of cardiovascular disease andlung cancer.  AI is also being used todecrease the number of unwarranted operations patients undergo because of falsepositives.

In Shanghai, multinational investment corporation, Tencent isworking with the Shanghai Cancer Center to establish an AI-based, big data laboratoryto streamline the cancer treatment process, according to Shine, adigital news organization under Shanghai Daily.

Using AI, the entities hope to develop a clinical research andtreatment platform, improve medical record management, allow for earlyscreening for people at high risk for cancer, assign patients to appropriateexperts and improve follow-up management for discharged patients, according tothe report. The effort is aimed at using AI to achieve more precisemedicine, better patient matching for new drug trials and astreamlined cancer treatment process.

President Trump recently  signed an executive order to spur the development, growth and regulations of AI in the country.