We hear it everywhere in the media today; artificial intelligence is advancing faster than ever before and is likely to surpass human capability in many arenas soon. Medicine has historically been rather slow in adopting new technological change in order to ensure the safety of patients. However, we are at the time where artificial intelligence is starting to make its way into healthcare.

Artificial intelligence in healthcare could take many forms as it evolves, but it will likely start as decisional intelligence. This would use AI and machine learning to reveal associations in a patient’s medical records to make predictions, illuminate a causal chain that may not have been easily noticed, and combine these associations to make different decisions.

This may have tremendous benefit for patients, as risk factors for disease may be recognized earlier, allowing for diagnosis and treatment to occur more quickly.

Plenty of companies have started filing for FDA approval of these types of software programs to get artificial intelligence in medicine. In fact, this is already in place in some areas of medicine, like choosing medication and dosage, or even between surgical procedures.

There are still plenty of larger societal problems in implementing this technology that are not easily understood. The access to the technology, the optimal balance between human contact vs. computer, and of course, medical malpractice liability.

Consider a health care institution that uses AI to take over functions traditionally done by physicians. This may include reviewing a patient’s medical history and incorporating that data into a plan for the patient. What if AI “misses” something a human doctor likely would not have. Who would be responsible in that circumstance: the hospital for using the AI, the doctor for relying on it?

The future should be interesting.

You can read more here:

[Is Artificial Intelligence’s Moment in Medicine on the Horizon?](https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/903787#vp_2)