Artificial Intelligence Helps Healthcare

Cleveland Clinic Innovations, https://innovations.clevelandclinic.org, the commercialization arm of the Cleveland Clinic, is working through their Healthcare Innovations Alliance  to help organizations streamline commercialization efforts.

Since 2000, CCI has executed over 500 licenses and created 75 spin-off companies that have raised over $1 billion in equity investment and commercialization grants and created over 1,500 jobs

The Healthcare Innovations Alliance sees Artificial Intelligence (AI) changing applications in decision support, image analysis, and patient triage. AI is able to process unlimited amounts of unstructured data, and can turn images and words into intelligible data.

With AI’s image analysis ability, the technology is taking the uncertainly out of viewing patient scans. Today, machine learning algorithms have the ability to highlight problem areas on images which can greatly aid in the screening process. AI has seen the greatest adoption in fields such as dermatology, neurology, and ophthalmology, but the reach of AI is expanding with time.

Decision support is another application where AI is improving patient outcomes. When physicians are faced with a difficult case file, clinical decision support systems are becoming essential tools for healthcare providers as decision support systems can quickly make sense of mountains of data within a physician’s EMR system.

Other areas where AI is expanding include being deployed to collect patient data. Today, an app or the use of text messaging with chatbots can ask patients a series of questions regarding their symptoms. After collecting sufficient information, the automated bots are able to recommend a visit to the doctor, or send the information to the physician for review.