How Machine Learning is Revolutionizing the Healthcare Industry

Machine learning is a form of artificial intelligence that enables computers to learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed. The healthcare industry has been a key area of focus for machine learning due to the vast amount of data generated by patient care, clinical trials, and research. Machine learning in healthcare has the potential to transform the way we approach medical diagnosis, treatment, and management. By using machine learning algorithms, healthcare providers can make more accurate and personalized predictions, leading to better patient outcomes. 

Applications of Machine Learning in Healthcare 

There are several applications of machine learning in healthcare that have already started to make a difference. Here are a few examples: 

• Medical Imaging: Machine learning algorithms can analyze medical images such as X-rays, MRI scans, and CT scans to identify potential issues or abnormalities. This can help doctors diagnose diseases such as cancer or heart disease at an early stage, leading to better treatment outcomes. 
• Clinical Decision Support: Machine learning algorithms can be used to help doctors make more informed decisions about patient care. By analyzing patient data such as medical history, symptoms, and lab results, machine learning algorithms can provide recommendations on treatment options. 
• Drug Discovery: Machine learning algorithms can help researchers identify potential new drugs and accelerate the drug discovery process. By analyzing copious amounts of data from clinical trials, machine learning can help identify potential side effects, drug interactions, and other factors that can impact drug efficacy. 
• Electronic Health Records: Machine learning algorithms can analyze electronic health records to identify patterns and trends that can help healthcare providers make more informed decisions about patient care. For example, machine learning algorithms can identify patients who are at elevated risk of developing a particular disease or condition. 

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Benefits of Using Machine Learning in Healthcare 

There are several benefits of using machine learning in healthcare, including: 

• Improved Diagnosis: Machine learning algorithms can help doctors make more accurate and timely diagnoses, leading to better patient outcomes. 
• Personalized Treatment: Machine learning algorithms can analyze patient data to provide personalized treatment recommendations based on individual factors such as medical history, genetics, and lifestyle. 
• Cost Savings: By automating certain tasks, machine learning can help healthcare providers reduce costs and improve efficiency. 
• Faster Drug Discovery: Machine learning algorithms can help researchers identify potential new drugs more quickly, leading to faster drug discovery and development. 
• Improved Patient Outcomes: By providing more accurate diagnoses and personalized treatment recommendations, machine learning can help improve patient outcomes. 

Challenges in Implementing Machine Learning in Healthcare 

While there are many benefits to using machine learning in healthcare, there are also several challenges that need to be addressed, including: 

• Data Quality: Machine learning algorithms require high-quality data to provide accurate predictions. In healthcare, data quality can be a challenge due to issues such as missing data, data inaccuracy, and data inconsistency. 
• Data Privacy: Healthcare data is extremely sensitive, and patient privacy must be protected. Implementing machine learning algorithms in healthcare requires strict data privacy and security measures to be in place. 
• Regulatory Compliance: Healthcare is a highly regulated industry, and implementing machine learning algorithms in healthcare requires compliance with regulations such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). 
• Technical Expertise: Implementing machine learning in healthcare requires technical expertise in areas such as data science, computer science, and statistics. Healthcare organizations may need to hire additional staff or outsource expertise to implement machine learning solutions. 

Best Practices for Machine Learning in Healthcare 

To address these challenges, healthcare organizations should follow best practices when implementing healthcare machine learning solutions. These best practices include: 

• Data Quality Management: Healthcare organizations should ensure that data is of high quality, accurate, and consistent. This can be achieved through data cleansing and normalization techniques. 
• Data Privacy and Security: Healthcare organizations should implement strict data privacy and security measures to protect patient data. This can include encryption, access controls, and regular security audits. 
• Regulatory Compliance: Healthcare organizations should ensure compliance with regulations such as HIPAA and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). This can include appointing a Data Protection Officer and implementing policies and procedures to ensure compliance. 
• Collaboration: Implementing machine learning in healthcare requires collaboration between different stakeholders, including clinicians, data scientists, and IT professionals. Healthcare organizations should encourage collaboration and communication to ensure that all stakeholders are aligned. 
• Continuous Improvement: Machine learning algorithms require continuous improvement and updating as new data becomes available. Healthcare organizations should establish processes to ensure that machine learning algorithms are regularly updated and improved. 

Case Studies of Machine Learning in Healthcare 

There are several case studies that demonstrate the potential of machine learning in healthcare. Here are a few examples: 

• DeepMind: DeepMind, a subsidiary of Google, developed an AI system to detect early signs of kidney disease. The system analyzes patient data such as blood tests and medical history to identify patients at substantial risk of developing kidney disease. This allows doctors to intervene early and prevent the disease from progressing. 
• IBM Watson: IBM Watson developed a machine learning algorithm to help oncologists identify personalized cancer treatments. The algorithm analyzes patient data such as DNA, medical history, and lab results to provide treatment recommendations based on individual factors. 
• PathAI: PathAI developed a machine learning algorithm to improve the accuracy of breast cancer diagnoses. The algorithm analyzes biopsy images to identify potential cancerous cells, improving the accuracy of diagnoses and reducing the need for unnecessary biopsies. 

Future of Machine Learning in Healthcare 

The future of machine learning in healthcare is promising. If you also want to implement machine learning in your healthcare business by healthcare application development, you can hire machine learning experts.  

According to a report by MarketsandMarkets, the global healthcare artificial intelligence market is expected to grow from $4.9 billion in 2020 to $14.6 billion by 2023 to $102.7billion BY 2028, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 44.9%. This growth is driven by factors such as the increasing amount of healthcare data, the need for personalized medicine, and the growing adoption of AI in healthcare.  

Conclusion 

Machine learning has the potential to revolutionize the healthcare industry by improving patient outcomes, reducing costs, and accelerating the drug discovery process. However, implementing machine learning in healthcare requires addressing challenges such as data quality, data privacy, and regulatory compliance. Healthcare organizations should follow best practices such as data quality management, data privacy and security, collaboration, and continuous improvement to ensure the successful implementation of healthcare machine learning solutions. With the growing amount of healthcare data and the increasing demand for personalized medicine, the future of machine learning in healthcare looks promising. Healthcare organizations that invest in machine learning solutions today will be well-positioned to succeed in the future. 

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

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Machine learning (ML) is an application of artificial intelligence (AI) wherein the system looks at observations or data, such as examples, direct experience, or instruction, figures out patterns in data and predicts events in the future based on the examples that we provide. Machine learning is seeing more and more use across industries for various reasons: vast amounts of data are being captured and made available digitally; processing of large amounts of data has become cost-effective due to the increased computing power now available at affordable prices; and various open source frameworks, toolkits and libraries are available that can be used to build and execute ML applications.

Specifically in healthcare, ML has led to exciting new developments that could redefine cancer diagnosis and treatment in the years to come. ML can increase access to treatment in developing countries which don't have enough specialist doctors that can treat certain diseases, it can improve the sensitivity of detection, add more value in treatment decisions, and it can help personalize treatment so that each patient gets the treatment that's best for them. In many cases they can even add to workflow efficiency in hospitals. The possibilities are endless.

Identifying Disease And Diagnosis

With growing populations and increased life expectancy, health systems are quickly becoming overburdened, under-resourced and not equipped for the challenges they face. Scientists have been working on ML models that predict disease susceptibility or aid in early diagnosis of diseases and illnesses. UK-based technology start-up Feebris is using artificial intelligence algorithms for the precise detection of complex respiratory conditions in the field. It connects to existing medical sensors and can be used by non-doctor users to identify respiratory issues early, avoiding complications and hospitalizations. In what could be an absolute game-changer, MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab has developed a new deep learning-based prediction model that can forecast the development of breast cancer up to five years in advance. Their model was trained on mammograms and patient follow-up data to identify patterns that would not be obvious to or even observable by human clinicians. The results have so far shown to be far more precise, especially at predictive, pre-diagnosis discovery.

Medical Imaging Diagnosis

IBM researchers estimate that medical images are the largest data source in the healthcare industry. ML algorithms can process massive amounts of medical images at rapid speeds. And they can be trained to be extremely precise in identifying miniscule details in CT scans and MRIs. Companies such as Enlitic, Zebra Medical Vision and Sophia Genetics have developed ML algorithm-based analysis of all types of medical imaging reports and can diagnose malignancies or abnormalities with a higher accuracy rate than healthcare professionals. LYNA (LYmph Node Assistant) by Google detects spread of breast cancer metastasis early and can reduce the burden on pathologists as well. A deep learning convolutional neural network or CNN—developed by a team from Germany, France and the US—can diagnose skin cancer more accurately than dermatologists. In a recently reported study, the software was able to accurately detect cancer in 95% of images of cancerous moles and benign spots, whereas a team of 58 dermatologists was accurate 87% of the time.

The move from lab to actual practice has happened already for some AI-based solutions such as the FDA-approved imaging tool called IDx-DR for diagnosing diabetic eye disease.

Robotic Surgery

Robotics is changing the way surgery is performed today. The da Vinci robot is designed to facilitate complex surgery using a minimally invasive approach, reducing the length of surgeries and subsequently hospital stays. Various other robotic tools such as Stereotaxis in cardiac catheterization, Medtronic/Mazor in spine and neurology, Accuray in cancerous tumor irradiation, Stryker's Mako in orthopedic hip and knee replacement are improving surgical outcomes for thousands of patients. Even dental implants and hair transplants are being performed by surgical robots today.

AI and ML-based techniques will enhance the precision of surgical tools by incorporating real-time data, feedback from previous successful surgeries and data from electronic medical records during the surgery itself. This can help reduce human error and help general surgeons to perform complex surgeries in resource-limited settings lacking specialists.

Personalized Medicine

By applying AI and ML to multiple data sources—genetic data, electronic health records, sensor/wearables data, environmental and lifestyle data—researchers are taking first steps toward developing personalized treatments for diseases from cancer to depression. IBM Watson Oncology is making great strides in cancer treatment by leveraging patient medical history to help generate multiple treatment options. Similarly, a test named "CanAssist Breast' uses ML to identify a novel combination of biomarkers which play key role in recurrence of breast cancer. The test predicts the risk of recurrence for every patient. This helps personalize treatment by allowing patients with a low risk of cancer recurrence to receive less aggressive treatment.

Drug Development

ML can be applied at all stages of new drug discovery including designing the chemical/protein structure of drugs, target validation, investigating drug safety and managing clinical trials. The hope is that use of ML in drug discovery will not only help significantly reduce the cost of introducing new drugs to the market, but also make the drug discovery process faster (currently 10-15 years including clinical trials) and more cost-effective (currently costs almost $1 billion per new drug). AI company Atomwise's platform AtomNet uses deep learning software to sift through millions of possible molecules in a day or two, which would normally take months via traditional methods. The software then analyzes simulations that show how the potential medicine will behave in the human body. It has been able to identify possible medicines for multiple sclerosis and the deadly Ebola virus. Deepmind, the AI arm of Google's parent Alphabet Inc, is also making huge progress in this field.

Thus, it can be seen that AI indeed has tremendous potential and all stakeholders like the promising algorithms, accurate clinical and relevant in vivo data, clinicians, institutions have to align themselves to reap meaningful benefits from it.

One must remember that excellent technical innovations in AI can not fix social/political problems. Also the data input to AI must be in high volume and of clinically high quality/relevance. Fundamentally flawed data cannot substitute for high volume. Currently most of the AI applications are using the paradigm of "deductive reasoning' and we need to move from towards "inductive reasoning'.

We have travelled fair amount in the AI path to excellence but one must be cautious going further to embrace the brilliant promise it holds. What we need next is to move from theoretic benefit and evangelical sales to established use cases and robust, clinically-relevant data.