“Al will not replace doctors but instead will augment them, enabling physicians to practice better medicine with greater accuracy and increased efficiency.”
– By Benjamin Bell (Scottish Scientific Surgeon)
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have received widespread interest in recent years due to their potential to set new paradigms in healthcare delivery. It is being said that machine learning will transform many aspects of healthcare delivery, and radiology & pathology are among the specialties set to be among the first to take advantage of this technology.
Medical imaging professionals in the coming years will be able to use a rapidly expanding AI-enabled diagnostic toolkit for detecting, classifying, segmenting, and extracting quantitative imaging features. It will eventually lead to accurate medical data interpretation, enhanced diagnostic processes, and improved clinical outcomes. Advancements in deep learning (DL) and other AI methodologies have exhibited efficacy in supporting clinical practice for enhanced precision and productivity.
Hurdles to AI Integration into Healthcare
Though AI can empower healthcare and diagnostic processes with automation integration, some challenges exist. The lack of annotated data makes it difficult to train deep-learning algorithms. Moreover, the black-box nature leads to the opacity of the results of deep learning algorithms. Clinical practice faces critical challenges when incorporating AI into healthcare workflows.
The key challenges to successful AI implementation in the healthcare practice are as follows:
1- Ethical & Legal Issues for Data Sharing
2- Training Healthcare Practitioners and Patients to Operate Complex AI Models
3- Managing Strategic Change to Put AI Innovations into Practice
1- Ethical & legal Issues Hindering Access to High-Quality Datasets for AI Developer
Whether integrating artificial intelligence in medical imaging or employing deep learning technology to maneuver clinical diagnostic procedures, high-quality healthcare datasets are the key to success. As we tend to figure out the critical roadblocks to developing AI models for healthcare, it’s been found that ethical and legal issues have so far been the biggest hurdle to developing AI-powered machine learning models.
Since patients’ health information is protected by law as private and confidential, healthcare providers must comply with strict privacy and data security policies. However, it keeps healthcare practitioners under the ethical & legal obligation not to provide their data to any third party. Consequently, it hinders AI developers from accessing high-quality datasets to develop AI training data for healthcare machine learning models.
In addition to ambiguities in existing laws and challenges associated with sharing data between organizations, healthcare leaders also identified external conditions and circumstances as challenges. As a result of these challenges, uncertainties arose concerning responsibilities concerning the design and implementation of AI systems and what is permissible, resulting in legal and ethical concerns.
2- Training Healthcare Practitioners and Patients to Use Complex AI Models
Incorporating AI systems could improve healthcare efficiency without compromising quality, and this way, patients could receive better and more personalized care. Investigations, assessments, and treatments can be simplified and improved by using AI systems that are smart and efficient. However, implementing AI in healthcare is challenging because it needs to be user-friendly and procure value for patients and healthcare professionals.
AI systems are expected to be easy to use and user-friendly, self-instructing, and not require extensive prior knowledge or training. Besides being simple to use, AI systems should also be time-saving and never demand different digital operative systems to function. For healthcare practitioners to efficiently operate AI-powered machines and applications, AI models must be simple in terms of their features and functionality.
3- Managing Strategic Change to Put AI Innovations into Practice
The healthcare experts noted that implementing AI systems in the county council will be difficult due to the healthcare system’s internal capacity for strategic change management. For the promotion of capabilities to work with implementation strategies of AI systems at the regional level, experts highlighted the need for infrastructure and joint ventures with familiar structures and processes. Organizational goals, objectives, and missions needed to be achieved through this action to obtain lasting improvement throughout the organization.
Healthcare professionals only partially determine how an organization implements change since change is a complex process. In Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), we need to focus on organizational capabilities, climates, cultures, and leadership, which all play a role in the “inner context.” Maintaining a functioning organization and delivery system is part of the capacity to put innovations into healthcare practice.
Enhancing Healthcare by Integrating Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging through Data Annotation
An imaging technique that allows us to see inside the body without having to open the body up surgically is known as a medical imaging technique (MIT). The use of AI in clinical diagnostics has demonstrated some of its most promising applications, including X-ray radiography, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and ultrasound imaging.
Machine learning will improve the radiology patient experience at every step. Much of the initial focus for the application of machine learning in medical imaging has been on image analysis and developing tools to make radiologists more efficient and productive. The same tools will often enable more precise diagnosis and treatment planning or help reduce missed diagnoses, thus leading to improved patient outcomes.
AI & machine learning have a much broader role in radiology beyond clinical decision-making and can help improve the patient experience throughout the imaging process — all the way from the initial scheduling of the imaging examination to the end of diagnosis and follow-up.
Taking a look at the trends around the healthcare system, we can see machine learning has applications that go beyond diagnostic and medical imaging. It can enhance the data acquisition process to ensure the highest quality image for each examination and assist imaging departments in maximizing operational performance efficiently.
Conclusion
Since the medical industry is at the dawn of a new wave of AI-fueled tech innovation, it is time for health providers to establish a roadmap for incorporating AI into their clinical practice. As the global population continues to grow, healthcare practitioners must invest in technologies that can improve patient care and transform clinical workflows. The application of artificial intelligence to healthcare delivery is unquestionably at the top among technologies that can revolutionize clinical processes.
