The Parallel Universe

apimages, 2017

What exactly is Medical Artificial Intelligence?

There are a few debates around what makes something artificially intelligent. Some may say that facial recognition and self-parking cars are artificial intelligent. However, when looking at the definition closely, one can argue that this is not the case. As a truly artificially intelligent system, as defined by Freedom and safety., 2018, is one that learns on its own, one that’s capable of crunching copious amounts of data in order to create associations and intelligently mimic actual human behavior.

In medicine, it consists of computer techniques that help perform clinical diagnoses and suggest treatments. AI has the capability of detecting meaningful relationships in a data set and has been widely used in many clinical situations to diagnose, treat, and predict the results (YK Chan., ‎2018).

Many have heard of medical robots assisting doctors in everyday surgeries. Hospitals are already using the various types such a surgical assistance robots, telepresence robots and rehabilitation robots. They all play a crucial part from operation to rehabilitation and are helping doctors save lives every single day. The most impressive one perhaps, the telepresence robot, which is used by physicians to examine and treat patients in rural and remote locations. These are individuals who may without telepresence robots not have gotten the help they needed. Deep learning is centered at this discussion. It is the element that takes artificial intelligence in medicine to the next level. It allows the machine to teach itself how to understand data and then to classify the record or make predictions, thus leading to more accurate health predictions through sorting through thousands of outcomes within seconds. Time, as we know is of essence in the health care industry and is thus an excellent benefit that has come with it.There are however several other benefits that come along with AI in medicine, of which some are outlined below.

1: The Benefits of AI in healthcare

medindia.net., February 2018

Medical AI and ethics

Ethical challenges have come about with this new advancement and just like in every new development there will be sceptics. The two main topics surrounding this skepticism are:

1. Maintaining fairness when learning from biased data
2. The effect on the doctor-patient relationship. 

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Another big topic is the loss of jobs in the medical industry. Will robots replace doctors? This is a question many are asking. However, although routine tasks and data collection entry can be conducted by machines, there will always be a need for the human element. This is the part that technology cannot provide. Although jobs may not be replaced, there are still many who are skeptical and it is no surprise that AI in medicine will face many challenges and debates. Some of these challenges are outlined in the graph below.

2: A graph depicting the challenges of AI in medicine

eHealth Trendbarometer., May 2018

How will the Medical AI trend impact on AI professionals?

AI is a growing field and many are looking to make the move. Everyday our DACH specialized recruitment consultants speak to many professionals especially within the Berlin Digital market, Business intelligence and data science, who are looking to make that move to a more AI focused role. They know the trend and they know where the market is going. All we can do is 100% back them up as we to know that AI is yet to become one of the biggest trending fields.

With the world becoming more robotic and more industries incorporating technology at the core of their operations, the need for AI professionals is growing drastically. Certain industries, such as the automotive industry, have already reached their peak, but the health care industry is yet to see the drastic growth. The graph below represents a prediction for AI in healthcare and it clearly shows that we are not far away from a smart medical world.

3: A graph depicting the average year of a AI breakthrough

eHealth Trendbarometer., May 2018

Which country is hot in AI at the moment?

Germany has recently announced their implementation of a AI strategy, to transform Germany into a ‘leading global AI hub’. This was to no surprise, as Berlin is already doing exceptionally well within AI. According to Atomico’s State of European Tech report, Berlin is currently Europe’s top AI talent hub. Many have agreed, that Germany is most likely to become a leader in autonomous vehicles, robotics and quantum computing and is thus a perfect place to explore AI further.

A final note:

Although there are still many challenges the AI medical industry faces, it is no secret that medical AI has already improved the industry significantly and will continue to do so. AI will continue to grow and we may think that it is already close to its peak, being one of the top tech trends in 2018, but we are very much mistaken. AI is yet to grow even more and it is the perfect time to break into the industry now and become one of the AI specialists.