AI in medicine – will artificial intelligence soon replace doctors?

Artificial intelligence used in medicine is a new idea based on neural network architecture. It allows us to get insights from analysing  available data.

But first let’s answer some fundamental questions that may appear in the context of AI, for example: what artificial intelligence really is and what solutions it provides us with.

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What is artificial intelligence?

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Many of us, if not everyone, have heard about artificial intelligence before, but some may still not know that AI surrounds us and is present in almost every aspect of our lives.

The easiest way to explain it is by saying that AI is a system or a group of systems that emulate human thought processes to perform tasks in the most productive way. But AI can also improve on its own by relying on available information.

What are AI applications  in everyday life? The best ones are Google Assistant and Siri, Apple users’ favourite. They are nothing more than just AI solutions used to make life easier. Brilliant, isn’t it? Google Assistant and Siri draw on the field of machine learning, which is why you only have to say “hi Google” or “hi Siri” to start a conversation.

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Google Assistant and Siri can answer questions and follow instructions thanks to AI technology. It would have sounded impossible in the past, but today it has become a reality.

Voice Assistants are not the only tool that we have because of AI. Artificial intelligence has an impact on many aspects of our lives, and this impact is still growing amid rapid technological advancement. We can use AI technology in business, banking or even medicine. Not only is it helpful, but it also offers new solutions to the problem we weren’t able to sort in the past.

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In recent years, artificial neural networks have been one of the most rapidly developing tools for modelling, predicting, and generalising the behaviour of nonlinear objects. They are excellent in all the places where conventional methods are not effective, and where it proves very difficult or impossible to describe them in mathematical terms.

Such circumstances tend to occur in medicine when all available diagnostic systems fail. Artificial intelligence or AI systems take it over from educated doctors and employ  technological innovations to diagnose the condition.

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AI technology in medicine

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Healthcare is one of the most promising development opportunities for AI, as there are already numerous AI-based solutions implemented. New technology, overseen by an AI developer and an AI consultant, makes it possible to recognize events that have appeared several times in the patient’s medical history, diagnostic results from histopathology images, or epidemiology data, to name but a few.

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This in fact may be one of the most important and, above all, the strongest features of current artificial intelligence technology. Data collected with the support of data scientists and outsourcing techniques is conducive to diagnosing and detecting existing diseases or illnesses.

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Certainly, it is necessary to have a highly advanced AI developer who can put ideas into practice to create a thinking machine. Besides, artificial intelligence solutions implemented in medicine encompass mechanics, electronics, and computer science. The famous IT department also helps run websites and systems which the infrastructure of many companies is based on.

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For this very reason, it is essential to have a wide variety of specialists in particular fields. The case of medical robots is no different. The automation that AI validation brings to the medical sphere can even completely relieve doctors and nurses from performing routine tasks. This will allow them to fully focus on more complex cases. 

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The use of robots in medicine

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Let’s see what robots are able to do in medicine. We can divide them into some categories:

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• Therapeutics;
• Diagnostics;
• Complementary social and care needs;
• Transportation;
• Education;
• First aid (during emergencies);
• Support (artificial internal and external organs).

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We should also acknowledge the existence of surgical robots, which through machine learning outsourcing allow for much more in the medical field than the work of human beings.

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What are the most popular medical robots created to date?

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An artificial intelligence project in the 1990s led to an opinion that robots could completely replace surgeons in the near future. This occurred because people at the time were yet not  fully aware of the difference between science fiction and real life.

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Doctors are an indispensable part of medicine, and robots can only serve as assistance and convenience during a surgery or a diagnostic process. At least for the time being. Artificial intelligence is constantly being improved, and saw its first medical robots some time ago. We would like to present two of the most renowned medical robots that have changed the world.

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RP-VITA

AI development was already gaining a significant amount of medical applications in early 2013.  Back then, the Food and Drug Administration, commonly known as the FDA, had only found activity for the first robot that can perform the tasks and duties of a doctor. The robot, named RP-VITA,is about the size of a real human, but has no arms and moves with the help of attached wheels. It is equipped with a screen, camera and microphone, which allows the doctor to communicate with the patient remotely.

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Da Vinci

So far, artificial intelligence solutions have made it possible to create the Da Vinci robot as per the Pentagon’s  order. Thanks to this robot, impossible surgeries have become possible, although it does not work independently – it requires an operator to function properly. It found its way into the hands of surgeons, allowing them to perform much more precise operations.

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The robot is equipped with 3D cameras, tools to increase the operating field, as well as hands that perfectly mimic the movements of the surgeon. It also provides a hand tremor reduction system. Therefore, the surgeries are safer for the patients. The Da Vinci robot is also present in Poland.

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Summary 

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An AI-driven device provided with appropriate algorithms can help collect an accurate medical history and determine an approximate diagnosis. However, the creation of a fully automated doctor is still a rather distant vision of the future.

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Despite already using highly advanced technology, artificial intelligence will certainly not supersede doctors in the coming years. At present, AI provides great help to healthcare professionals, however, it is not ready to take over their duties yet. It is possible that this turn of events will occur in the future, but it’s all in AI developers’ hands.