Here's something that you probably already know. Machine learning is going to cover almost every aspect of human life.
In most cases, these developments are benign at best. After all, our lives have become so comforting, that a little more won’t have any significant effect.
But if there is one industry where this isn’t true, then that is the healthcare sector.
It has been reported that by 2024, Artificial Intelligence will exceed 10 billion dollars in the just USA’s health care market alone.
Yeah, just hold your thought on that for a second. Just one country’s single industry will exceed over 10 billion dollars.
So, dear reader, as you can see, machine learning in healthcare is a fairly big deal. Like a giant big deal. Like a giant big deal that can later the course of human history.
So this is why, in our today’s article, we will be going over topics which include:
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What Is Machine Learning?
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What Are the Strong Points of Machine Learning?
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What Are the Key Benefits of Machine Learning in Healthcare?
So, let’s get going!
What Is Machine Learning, Exactly?
The term machine learning gets thrown off everywhere these days. And the best part is the reaction of people. Ranging from “Yes, this is awesome, we will have universal basic income” to “Skynet is going to take over very soon.”
And this is why it’s better to first understand machine learning as a whole.
Machine learning is a subject in the world of artificial intelligence that allows the machine to learn new concepts, and deliver fast results without the need for human intervention. I mean, that is written in the name guys, “
Machine Learning”.
Now, how a machine learns is a different topic together. Machines learn in different ways, such as Supervised, Unsupervised just to name a few.
What Are the Strong Points of Machine Learning?
Machine learning’s main strong point is its ability to churn a huge quantity of data. This data allows us to understand where exactly does the problem lies.
If you have ever spent some time in any administrative ward for any industry, then you know that data is by far the most precious commodity you can have.
In fact, the healthcare industry professionals take at least 25% of their important time on menial tasks such as record management and updating it.
Now imagine how great the implementation of machine learning can actually be.
It could reduce the need for human intervention and easily optimize such menial tasks.
Ok, machine learning is rad, if we implement it then medical professionals won’t have to waste time dealing with menial data and they can go save the world.
What Are the Key Benefits of Machine Learning in Healthcare?
Now we come to the main point. The ability to churn data is an overarching theme wherever machine learning is involved. That’s not the main benefit, especially not when it comes to the healthcare industry.
Those benefits include:
1) Detection of Chronic Illness
Yeah, I can hear you go
“Detection of chronic illness? Are you kidding me? What about robots doing surgeries and stuff!”
You’re not wrong. Machine learning is immensely useful for robots to do surgeries. But chronic illness detection is crucial here as well.
Just to give you an example, imagine someone having diabetes, or even worse, cancer. The problem with such diseases is that they are very hard to target in the early stages.
For diseases like cancer, early-stage prevention is the best cure that one can get.
Now imagine a software/algorithm, that can churn a huge chunk of data. Because of the huge rears of data churning, these algorithms can detect even a slight variation and trigger a diagnosis.
2) Decision Making
This will probably come as the last concern for anyone who is reading this article. But in reality, this point of machine learning can have the biggest positive impact on the medical/healthcare field as a whole.
Just think about the scenario.
There is a patient who is consulting a doctor. But because of logistical issues (They are not in the same city), they can’t always meet together.
So instead of spending a large amount of money on meeting one another, the patient interacts with a data-driven A.I. on the doctor’s website.
This AI has years and years of data in its system, and as they chat, every reply, every message is there to understand what exactly is going on with the patient. The chatting session will have the highest probability to come to a medical diagnosis.
This conversation not only will save everyone’s time, but it will also help the doctor to understand what sort of treatment the patient needs the most.
3) Discovering New Treatments
Even in today’s day and age, there are a lot of diseases that cannot completely be treated. Take, for example, AIDS, and already mentioned above, cancer.
But, here’s the thing. When you stimulate a drug trial and repeat it thousands upon thousands of times, you start to detect a pattern. And pattern deduction is the first step toward finding a cure.
This is where machine learning’s ability to learn by itself acts as a force multiplier and helps professionals find a cure faster.
Conclusion:
I know this is article is not what you were expecting. With all the hype surrounding Artificial Intelligence in healthcare being so prevalent, we thought it was better if we really informed you on the true benefits of Machine learning in healthcare.
Thank you for your time, if you feel like reading more of our articles, feel free to check them out here.
Have a great day ahead, and we will see you in the next one.
