Artificial intelligence refers to the simulation of human intelligence processes by smart computer systems that apply functions in multiple fields such as biology, computer science, mathematics, engineering, psychology, and others. Across the healthcare industry, artificial intelligence benefits healthcare providers in many aspects of patient care and clinical management functions.
AI in healthcare has an extremely wide application domain including medication, treatment plans, drug discovery, and others. It is commonly used in diagnostic treatment, personalized medications, drug development, patient monitoring care, and other medical practices.
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The current market scenario of artificial intelligence in the healthcare industry
According to a report published by Allied Market Research, the global AI in the healthcare market size is projected to reach $194.4 billion with a considerable CAGR from 2021 to 2030. With the rise in the volume of healthcare data, complexities of data sets are increasing, which in turn, is boosting the growth of the market. Few other factors such as a surge in the number of cross-industry partnerships & collaborations, rise in an imbalance between the healthcare providers and patients, advancements in the computing power, and others are also driving the growth of the global market of AI in the healthcare sector.
COVID-19 impact on the market of artificial intelligence in the healthcare industry
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has fueled the growth of AI in the healthcare market in more than one way. From the initial period of the pandemic to the present scenario, AI technologies are playing an essential role to combat the pandemic situation. Multiple pharmaceutical and biotechnological enterprises across the world are adopting AI tools & devices and are using them to detect and diagnose the coronavirus. Many startup companies are participating in the development of AI-driven diagnostic solutions, thereby, is contributing to the growth of the global market to a great extent.
For instance, in March 2020, IBM Watson Health in collaboration with EBSCO Information Services started offering access to evidence-based drug and disease information. This is helpful for clinicians who deal with infectious diseases, including COVID-19.
Furthermore, in June 2020, GE Healthcare, in partnership with a South Korean startup company named Lunit, launched an artificial intelligence-powered chest X-ray analysis suite. The suite is designed to detect and highlight eight health conditions, using algorithms built by Lunit.
At the same time, in July 2020, Alivecor introduced a digital health subscription service named Kardiacare. This service offers the controlling power of managing heart health at home. It is an exclusive digital tool that makes it easier to monitor risk factors, detect symptom triggers and interpret heart data.
On the other hand, in August 2017 i.e. in the pre-COVID era, Penn Medicine developed a promising solution by using machine learning. In this, the system reads the patient’s vital signs and predicts the possibilities of heart failure.
Types of artificial intelligence used in the healthcare industry
Following are the kinds of AI that are used in the healthcare industry from the past few decades:
- Machine learning: Machine learning, a field of data science, is one of the most common kinds of artificial intelligence used in healthcare industries. It accurately analyses thousands of computer records, data, and algorithms to detect disease patterns and the health conditions of the patient. In addition, machine learning can use real-time data, past medical records, and past surgery information to enhance surgical robotic tools. At the same time, machine learning through CAT scan, MRIs and other imaging technologies help clinical professionals improve their productivity and precision.
- Natural language processing (NLP): It is a subset of computer science, linguistics, and artificial intelligence that understands human language. NLP technology includes forms of speech recognition and translator, through which it enables computers to process human language in the form of text or voice notes and summarizes large volumes of text rapidly, even in real-time.
- Rule-based expert systems: It is the simplest kind of artificial intelligence. It takes knowledge from humans and applies hardcoded rules to the input. This means that the knowledge is represented by production rules.
In the modern era, with such a rapid growth of advanced AI technologies, artificial intelligence along with edge computing is used to manage healthcare and monitor patients remotely. In fact, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led to increasing telehealth adoption to enable patient care outside of traditional healthcare settings.
Carestream, a worldwide provider and a leader of powerful AI technologies, has collaborated with HPE GreenLake Cloud Services. Both these companies are going to support the operationalization of artificial intelligence to deliver ultimate solutions that can enhance diagnosis treatment through better image quality, optimize dose and workflow efficiency in medical imaging.
Here, it is worth stating that AI in healthcare is already changing the patient’s experience, clinician’s practices, and operation of the pharmaceutical industry. It is improving productivity, enhancing the quality of care, accelerating speed, and reducing the cost to develop treatments. With this drift on board, artificial intelligence in the healthcare market is anticipated to gather huge prospects and exponential growth in the near future.
Author’s Bio
Suchita Gupta is an explorer, musician, and content writer. While pursuing MBA, she found that nothing satisfies her more than writing on miscellaneous domains. She is a writer by day, and a reader by night. Besides, she can be found entertaining her audience on social media platforms. Find her on LinkedIn & Instagram.
