Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer in the realm of science-fiction. AI solutions make healthcare efficient, accurate, and accessible. Clinics, hospitals, and even individual medical practitioners use AI to streamline workflows, reduce human mistakes, and achieve better patient results.
For healthcare professionals in India, AI represents a potentially exciting way to improve access to medicine, enhance the precision of treatment, and provide personalised care to patients. But what, specifically, are the ways in which AI is harnessed to improve patient care? Let’s explore.
AI-powered diagnostics
The most significant advantage of AI in medicine is the improvement of diagnostic speed and accuracy. AI can interpret scans, detect trends in lab reports, and even assist physicians in detecting diseases at an early stage. AI acts as a second pair of eyes for doctors, cross-checking diagnosis.
- AI-powered radiology software can detect abnormalities in X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans faster than human radiologists.
- AI-enabled analysis of blood tests can detect possible conditions like diabetes, infections, or kidney diseases in a matter of seconds, allowing a reduction in treatment time.
- AI-driven pathology solutions assist doctors in predicting disease progression, enabling more effective treatment planning.
24/7 patient support chatbots
Patients typically have questions regarding their symptoms, drugs, or future procedures. Responding to these queries takes bandwidth away from medical professionals, which could otherwise be used to treat ailments. AI-enabled chatbots prove to be a great solution. Here’s how they can help:
- Provide immediate answers to standard medical problems, reducing hospital visits.
- Remind patients regarding appointments so that follow-ups are not missed.
- Aid in post-procedure care, informing patients about schedules of medication and dressing changes.
Remote patient monitoring and telemedicine
Artificial intelligence plays a large role in telemedicine, enabling medical professionals to remotely monitor and treat their patients.
- Wearable devices monitor heart rate, oxygen saturation levels, blood pressure, and blood glucose levels in real time.
- Algorithms spot the early warning signs of deterioration in health and notify physicians prior to a situation becoming critical.
- Virtual AI assistants walk patients through simple health check-ups, decongesting hospitals.
This solution comes in handy, especially in rural parts of India, where access to health facilities is limited.
- AI can translate local languages, and thus, healthcare becomes more accessible to non-English-speaking patients.
- Trained radiologists are often scarce in rural areas. AI-based technology assists in examining X-rays, CT scans, and ultrasounds remotely so that doctors from urban hospitals can diagnose precisely from a distance.
- AI-powered ambulance dispatch systems are able to optimise emergency response times, such that patients in critical condition in rural communities are attended to earlier.
Customised treatment plans
No two patients are the same, and AI is assisting in tailoring treatment plans according to individual health information. It considers factors like medical history, genetics and lifestyle to suggest the best course of treatment for a patient. Here’s how AI can help:
- Oncology platforms powered by AI assist in personalising the treatment of cancer.
- Mental health applications suggest individualised therapy using speech patterns and behavioural information.
- Diet and nutrition applications suggest meal plans for patients suffering from specific medical conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure.
Predictive healthcare and preventive medicine
Wouldn’t it be great if AI predicted health problems even before they happen? That is precisely what AI-driven predictive healthcare does. AI is aiding preventive healthcare by:
- Interpreting patient information and estimating the risk of diseases such as heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes.
- Identifying genetic susceptibility to some diseases via genome sequencing.
- Monitoring and predicting the outbreaks of infectious diseases.
Robot-assisted surgeries
Robot-assisted surgeries are transforming medicine by making procedures minimally invasive and more accurate. Via AI-enhanced imaging and real-time data interpretation, these robotic systems enable more precise incisions, less pain, and potentially faster recovery. AI also impacts post-surgical rehab, as AI-algorithms assist in personalising recovery programs according to a patient’s status and improvement.
Drug development and clinical trials
AI is accelerating drug development and clinical trials, getting drugs to market faster and more cost-effectively. Following are the mechanisms through which it supports the discovery of drugs:
- Screening millions of compounds, reducing research time.
- Assisting with recruiting ideal participants for drug trials, monitoring patient reactions to the drugs, and modifying trial parameters.
- Eliminating failed drug candidates earlier, conserving pharmaceutical companies millions of dollars in research and development.
- Discovering drugs to treat new diseases, and bringing these drugs into the market sooner.
Conclusion
AI is assisting physicians and healthcare workers in caring for patients better by way of diagnostics and remote monitoring, robotic procedures, and tailored treatments. For Indian healthcare providers, collaborations with NBFCs can help raise funds for AI-based healthcare projects. Additionally, healthcare solutions based on online marketplace platforms are now available, allowing hospitals to implement cutting-edge technology without much effort. As AI technology continues to develop, it will be an integral part of contemporary healthcare, enhancing lives and making medical treatment more intelligent and effective.
