Artificial Intelligence: the new healthcare algorithm

Kulveer Singh|26th September 2016



Better than humans? There’s proof!




Bringing technology to the doctor

The problem

A patient enters a clinic with a real problem. The doctor, with his years of experience, doesn’t recognise the symptoms and is completely at a loss as to how to treat. The patient doesn’t have infinite time, and the situation could worsen very quickly.

The solution

The doctor uses Modernizing Medicine, a database tool that he can scroll through, looks for treatment options for the patient’s rare condition, and writes the appropriate prescription - all in seconds.

The benefit

AI can help eliminate human error and wasted time, and gives the physician a whole host of options at the click of a button. Tools like Modernizing Medicine in the US take information from over 14 million patient visits, and its AI has the ability to streamline treatment options and suggest the most beneficial or most commonly used treatment for each individual patient case.

Modernizing Medicine has improved treatment protocols across many disease areas. In rheumatology, the platform gives rheumatologists the option of having a virtual exam room to cover common complaints, diagnoses, and develop treatment plans for individual diagnoses. 3D-mapping of the body also allows rheumatologists to document patient findings with ease and precision.

AI – a breadth of capabilities

As AI is able to sift through enormous amounts of information at high speed, this brings new hope to the field of research and development (R&D). The efficiency and comparative algorithms included within AI will open the door to tailored and effective drug discovery processes with experts highlighting that it will help bring down long term R&D costs. With the advantage of modern day computers having increased storage and processing power, AI will surely be incorporated into a wide range of areas within the years to come:

  • Medical imaging and diagnostics
  • Virtual assistants
  • Drug safety management
  • Drug discovery
  • A&E/ER and hospital monitoring

Will the machines take over?

The obvious benefits of AI are that they reduce medical error, improve management of patient health, and facilitate faster drug discovery processes. However, one of the biggest factors in the healthcare industry considering implementing AI lies in its cost-effectiveness (i.e. the reduction of human capital).

Doctors fear they will lose their jobs, and with increasingly more companies showing initiative in this field, the role of the physician could become obsolete.

Early AI companies recognise the importance of physician input and are developing their technologies with this in mind – to involve medical professionalsat every point in the disease management pathway.


Rather than replace doctors, this form of augmented AI will help to advance their capabilities, and in the process, bridge the gap between human and computer interfaces; giving doctors the platform to express their opinions to make confident and logical decisions. Together, healthcare and Artificial Intelligence can make a real difference in treating patients effectively.


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