How AI can make health care better

The Economist
15 Feb 202212:28

TLDRArtificial intelligence is revolutionizing healthcare with its ability to diagnose diseases, including eye conditions, more quickly than doctors. As the global patient population grows, AI offers solutions to manage the increasing demand, improving diagnostics and treatment efficiency. Concerns about patient privacy with AI's data use are addressed through new technologies that ensure data stays in its original location. The potential of AI in healthcare is vast, from speeding up the development of new treatments to virtual trials that enhance patient safety.

Takeaways

  • 🌍 The world is facing a significant medical problem: a growing number of patients and not enough doctors to treat them.
  • 💡 Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize healthcare by transforming how patients are diagnosed and treated.
  • 👁️ AI can diagnose over 50 types of eye diseases quickly, which can help address the high number of eye clinic appointments and prevent blindness caused by delays in treatment.
  • 🔍 AI's ability to analyze patient data quickly could improve diagnoses in various areas of medicine.
  • 🤖 Despite the benefits, there are concerns about patient privacy and the use of AI models as black boxes.
  • 🏥 Collaborations like those between Dr. Keane and machine learning startups aim to improve patient data connectivity and privacy.
  • 📈 AI's value in the healthcare market is expected to grow significantly, with an increase in clinician-led AI system development.
  • 🧑‍⚕️ Empowering clinicians to develop their own AI tools could lead to new discoveries in disease patterns and biomarkers.
  • 🔬 Virtual trials using AI can simulate procedures on individual patients, improving outcomes and reducing risks.
  • 🚀 AI can make the testing of new medical procedures more efficient and cost-effective, potentially speeding up the development of new treatments.

Q & A

  • What is the main problem discussed in the transcript regarding healthcare?

    -The main problem discussed is the growing number of patients and the insufficient number of doctors to treat them, suggesting that artificial intelligence could be a potential solution to this issue.

  • How does AI have the potential to transform healthcare according to the transcript?

    -AI has the power to transform healthcare by improving the ways patients are diagnosed and treated, making the testing of new medical procedures more efficient, and analyzing patient data more quickly than humans.

  • What is age-related macular degeneration and why is it significant in the context of the video?

    -Age-related macular degeneration is the most common cause of blindness in the UK and US. It is significant because it represents a condition that AI could help diagnose and treat more efficiently.

  • How does the AI system developed by Dr. Keane and his partners work in diagnosing eye diseases?

    -The AI system can analyze retinal scans within seconds, delineating different disease features on the scans, a task that would take a human expert hours or even days to complete.

  • What is the global challenge that AI can help address in the context of vision impairment?

    -AI can help address the growing number of people with distance vision impairment and blindness worldwide, with estimates predicting a 50 percent increase by 2050.

  • What concerns are raised about the use of AI in healthcare, particularly regarding patient privacy?

    -Concerns are raised about the privacy of patients' data, with instances like Google DeepMind receiving personally identifying medical records of NHS patients on potentially legally inappropriate bases.

  • How does the collaboration with machine learning startup Bitfont aim to improve patient privacy?

    -Bitfont acts as a switchboard, passing messages between those who want to ask something of the data set and the data owner, without the data ever leaving its original location, thus improving privacy.

  • What benefits could the technology from Bitfont bring to the healthcare ecosystem?

    -The technology could speed up governance processes, approve new treatments more quickly and safely, and provide additional benefits like preserving privacy with privacy-enhancing techniques.

  • What is the potential impact of clinicians developing their own AI systems on healthcare?

    -Clinicians developing their own AI systems could lead to further discoveries in disease patterns and biomarkers, bring them closer to patients, and empower them with technology to understand patient needs better.

  • What skepticism is expressed about the use of AI in healthcare, and how could it be addressed?

    -Skepticism is expressed about AI models being 'black boxes' with potential for wrong decisions and lack of accountability. Addressing this requires ensuring interpretability and traceability in AI decision-making.

  • How can AI improve the testing of new medical devices and procedures?

    -AI can create virtual trials to simulate procedures in computer-generated models, allowing for multiple variations to be tested efficiently and safely, reducing time and costs compared to traditional clinical trials.

Outlines

00:00

🤖 AI in Healthcare: Transforming Diagnosis and Treatment

The script discusses the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in revolutionizing healthcare by addressing the shortage of doctors and the increasing number of patients. AI's ability to quickly diagnose and suggest treatments for various diseases, including age-related macular degeneration, is highlighted. The script introduces Elaine Manor, a patient who benefited from AI-assisted treatment, and discusses the broader implications of AI in eye care and beyond, such as improving the efficiency of medical testing and the potential for increased privacy concerns due to data handling by companies like Google's DeepMind.

05:01

🔒 Enhancing Patient Privacy with AI: The Bitfont Innovation

This paragraph delves into the challenges of integrating patient data across different medical fields and the potential of AI to improve this process. It introduces Bitfont, a machine learning startup that aims to enhance patient privacy by acting as a 'switchboard' for data requests without moving the data from its original location. The paragraph also touches on the broader applications of AI in accelerating the approval of new treatments and the potential for clinicians to develop their own AI systems, as demonstrated by Dr. Kira O'Bern's team that developed an AI capable of recognizing gender from retinal scans.

10:01

🛠️ AI and Virtual Trials: Advancing Medical Device Testing

The final paragraph explores the use of AI in virtual trials to test new medical technologies and procedures. It describes how virtual trials can simulate different treatment scenarios on digital replicas, allowing for more efficient and cost-effective testing compared to traditional clinical trials. The script mentions a specific case where virtual trials produced results as reliable as three clinical trials but in a fraction of the time and cost. The paragraph concludes with a forward-looking perspective on AI's role in healthcare, suggesting that AI will become an integral part of the medical field as it evolves to be more knowledge-driven.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think and learn. In the video, AI is discussed as a potential revolutionary tool for transforming healthcare by diagnosing and treating patients more efficiently than human doctors.

💡Healthcare

Healthcare refers to the organized provision of medical care to individuals or communities. The video emphasizes the challenges in healthcare, such as the growing number of patients and insufficient doctors, and how AI can address these challenges by improving diagnosis, treatment, and the development of new medical procedures.

💡Diagnosis

Diagnosis is the process of identifying a disease or condition from its signs and symptoms. The video highlights how AI can quickly and accurately diagnose over 50 types of eye diseases, significantly reducing the time and effort required by human doctors.

💡Age-related macular degeneration (AMD)

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a medical condition that results in the loss of vision in the center of the visual field. The video mentions Elaine Manor, who suffered from AMD, and how successful treatment enabled her to regain her sight and participate in fundraising activities.

💡Retinal scans

Retinal scans are medical imaging techniques used to capture detailed images of the retina. The video explains how AI can analyze retinal scans within seconds to diagnose eye diseases, a task that would take human experts much longer.

💡Patient privacy

Patient privacy involves protecting the personal and medical information of patients. The video discusses concerns about AI's use of patient data and highlights efforts to improve data protection, such as the collaboration with the machine learning startup Bitfount.

💡Virtual trials

Virtual trials are computer-simulated trials used to test new medical procedures and devices. The video describes how virtual trials can speed up the development process, reduce costs, and improve patient outcomes by allowing multiple variations of a procedure to be tested without risk to real patients.

💡Machine learning

Machine learning is a subset of AI that involves training algorithms to learn from and make predictions based on data. The video highlights how machine learning is used to develop AI systems for diagnosing diseases and conducting virtual trials.

💡DeepMind

DeepMind is an AI company owned by Google, known for its advanced AI research. The video mentions DeepMind's involvement in developing AI for healthcare and the controversies regarding its use of NHS patient data.

💡Clinical trials

Clinical trials are research studies performed on people to evaluate medical, surgical, or behavioral interventions. The video contrasts traditional clinical trials, which are time-consuming and expensive, with virtual trials that can achieve similar results more efficiently using AI.

Highlights

AI has the potential to revolutionize healthcare by transforming patient diagnosis and treatment methods.

AI can make the testing of new medical procedures more efficient and effective.

Elaine Manor, blind in one eye due to age-related macular degeneration, was saved by successful treatment.

Nearly 10% of all clinic appointments in the NHS are for eye care, highlighting the scale of the problem.

AI systems can diagnose over 50 types of eye disease as well as a doctor but much more quickly.

The global challenge of vision impairment is growing, with an estimated 596 million people affected in 2020.

AI can analyze retinal scans within seconds, a task that would take human experts hours or days.

AI's ability to analyze patient data quickly could improve diagnoses in many areas of medicine.

Concerns about patient privacy with AI, especially with the case of Google DeepMind and NHS data.

AI has the capacity to make patient care much better and more efficient if data protection is improved.

Dr. Keane hopes collaboration with machine learning startup Bitfont can improve patient privacy.

AI could speed up the approval of new treatments with privacy-preserving techniques.

By 2027, AI's value in the healthcare market is expected to be eight times bigger than in 2020.

Clinicians developing their own AI systems could lead to further discoveries in disease patterns and biomarkers.

AI models are often 'black boxes,' raising questions about accountability and interpretability.

AI can improve the testing of new medical devices by creating virtual trials, reducing risk to patients.

Virtual trials can test multiple variations of a new procedure or technology more efficiently than conventional trials.

AI's future in healthcare is promising, with advancements towards more sophisticated and intelligent systems.