With rising patient demand, staff shortages, and stretched resources, healthcare systems worldwide are facing a crisis. But Artificial Intelligence (AI) is stepping in to revolutionize diagnostics, patient care, and medical research—offering faster diagnoses, streamlining administrative tasks, and even accelerating drug development. Yet, as AI takes on more responsibilities, where do we draw the line between technological advancement and the irreplaceable human touch? In this deep dive, Rotola explores how AI is reshaping healthcare—and whether the future of medicine is as promising as it seems.
By Rotola O. O.
With waiting lists growing and staff numbers shrinking, healthcare systems around the world are in dire need of an overhaul. Enter AI; technology that can perform tasks previously thought to need human intelligence, and it’s transforming healthcare for the better, one algorithm at a time.
AI and the Workforce
Computer systems can be trained to recognise patterns, which can be applied to diagnostics. Medical images are scanned with accuracy, meaning diseases like cancer can consistently be caught at earlier stages, often providing better outcomes. This could also reduce cases of negligence occurring when workers fail to spot abnormalities.
Transcription software provides a way to document patient information in real time just by speaking, lifting the burden of time-consuming typing. More administrative duties like altering appointments and billing can be automated by AI and can be done swiftly without compromising on effectiveness. This frees up valuable time to be spent on the main priority: safe patient care.
AI and the Patient
You’ve probably seen a small chat icon in the corner of a webpage. The likes of amazon have embraced chat boxes with a human name to help with basic enquiries. In healthcare, these can provide information to answer those general questions and even remind people to take medication and of their appointments. Access to healthcare can be improved in this way, especially for older people.
AI can search through a patients’ information thoroughly and analyse current research to provide evidence-based treatment plans, tailored to that patient. Such personalised medicine can be more successful for the individual. Potential complications can be predicted, and preventative measures can be put in place, such as a proactive approach to improve lives. This could help reduce the need for more complex treatment later. The embodiment of patient-centred care.
AI and the Population
In drug development, huge sets of data from genomics, proteomics and many other studies can be analysed to single out specific drug targets that are associated with specific diseases. Cutting down on the trial and error like this increases efficiency. Bizarrely, generative AI can rapidly create new molecular structures from current data and replicate their likely interplay with therapeutic targets. These can be constructed and tested. Optimising drug development like this has the potential to bring new drugs to the market faster.
Furthermore, due to being adept at pattern recognition, AI has already been used to spot trends pointing to disease outbreak, serving as an early warning system.
In conclusion, AI has vast applications and is genuinely being used as a tool to improve our healthcare systems. But it is not perfect. There are concerns about data protection, errors in processing and informing patients of how it is used in their care. AI has come a long way, but I believe we’ll always need human involvement and connection in healthcare. Personally, I feel the jobs of healthcare workers like doctors’, nurses and therapists should be guarded against displacement.
By Rotola O. O.
POTENTIAL REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
AI speeds up admin, freeing up doctors. Automated scheduling and transcription reduce workload, improving patient care. Read more
AI improves diagnosis accuracy. It detects diseases like cancer early, reducing human error. Read more
AI chatbots assist patients. They answer questions, send reminders, and improve access to healthcare. Read more
AI speeds up drug discovery. It analyzes massive datasets to identify new treatments faster. Read more
Doctors are still essential. AI helps, but empathy, judgment, and human care can’t be replaced. Read more