How AI will change health care in 2022

Artificial intelligence (AI) has seen a major uptick in use in the last few years and isn't expected to slow down anytime soon — the annual growth rate for AI is predicted to be 33.2% through 2027, according to the SEMrush blog. These are some of the major trends in AI that health care providers need to consider in an environment that continues to change.

AI tools are easier to use than ever — and configurable
Because of developer trends that move toward no-code or low-code technologies, workloads are simplified for health care workers. More than half of respondents (61%) in the Gradient Flow 2022 AI in Healthcare Survey Report responded that clinicians themselves were their target users for configurable AI tools.

As developments and investments into AI tools tailored for health care use grow, adoption in the wider industry is expected to increase. AI tools in office spaces like the Adobe Creative Suite will lead to more iteration and accessibility for every medical professional. As medical professionals use and tailor these tools to their needs, harder problems may become more solvable. 

Similarly, as iteration with these tools increases, so can development for health care. Leaders in the Survey Report stated that by the end of the year, they'll have implemented the following technologies:

• Data integration, 46%
• Business intelligence (BI), 44%
• Natural language processing (NLP), 43%
• Data annotation, 38%
• Locally installed commercial software, 37%
• Open source software, 35%

With these in place, essential health care functions are boosted, like policy assessment, clinical decision-making, new-patient intake and drug discovery. Technical leaders and respondents from leading organizations reiterate that AI with specific health care-centered models is most important for the industry. Here are some examples of organizations applying AI in their approaches to care.

Iterative Scopes
Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Iterative Scopes is applying AI to gastroenterology to improve diagnosis and disease treatment. With AI, detection and treatment of gastrointestinal diseases can become more automated and simplify processes for professionals to treat patients.

Atomwise
Working in small molecule drug discovery, Atomwise is looking to expedite medicine making with AI machine learning. This comes in the shape of several benefits, including no need for crystal structure, trillions of screens for silico and fewer false positives in chemical models. They also just announced a new research deal with Sanofi, cementing their reach well into the future.

Digital Diagnostics
As the first autonomous AI approved by the FDA, Digital Diagnostics' IDx-DR system has been used to identify diabetic retinopathy, which is one of the leading causes of blindness in the U.S., and other serious eye diseases. Because of these developments, Digital Diagnostics announced in August that it has raised $75 million in funding, per Crunchbase. Beyond eye disease, IDx-DR technology has also detected melanoma, carcinomas and other skin conditions. With this level of accuracy and more funding, Digital Diagnostics remains an imperative space for AI use in healthcare going forward.

As health care and AI find ways to coexist, Perle Systems is doing its part in both the implementation of AI and elevating health care to its best form. For more info, reach out for a conversation with a member of our team today!