Medicine and the rise of the robots: a qualitative review of recent advances of artificial intelligence in health

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to significantly transform the role of the doctor and revolutionise the practice of medicine. This qualitative review paper summarises the past 12 months of health research in AI, across different medical specialties, and discusses the current strengths as well as challenges, relating to this emerging technology. Doctors, especially those in leadership roles, need to be aware of how quickly AI is advancing in health, so that they are ready to lead the change required for its adoption by the health system. Key points: ‘AI has now been shown to be as effective as humans in the diagnosis of various medical conditions, and in some cases, more effective.’ When it comes to predicting suicide attempts, recent research suggest AI is better than human beings. ‘AI’s current strength is in its ability to learn from a large dataset and recognise patterns that can be used to diagnose conditions, putting it in direct competition with medical specialties that are involved in diagnostic tests that involve pattern recognition, such as pathology and radiology’. The current challenges in AI include legal liability and attribution of negligence when errors occur, and the ethical issues relating to patient choices. ‘AI systems can also be developed with, or learn, biases, that will need to be identified and mitigated’. As doctors and health leaders, we need to start preparing the profession to be supported by, partnered with, and, in future, potentially be replaced by, AI and advanced robotics systems.

Artificial intelligence and the ongoing need for empathy, compassion and trust in healthcare

“…The potential impact of artificial intelligence on health care, in general, and on the therapeutic relationship between health-care providers and patients, in particular, is widely acknowledged, 38,47,48 as is the fact that society needs to learn how to deal "with new forms of agents, patients and environments." 49 Artificial intelligence has great potential to improve efficiency and effectiveness in health care.…”

The impact of artificial intelligence on the current and future practice of clinical cancer genomics

“…Unfortunately, attempts to implement Watson in US hospitals fell massively short of expectations. There were reports of its recommendations providing no additional insight compared with those of the involved human doctors, and sometimes even including concerning inaccuracies (Loh, 2018). This highlights the importance of not rushing to introduce a technology without fully understanding its capabilities.…”

The impact of AI and robotics on physical, social‐emotional and intellectual learning outcomes: An integrated analytical framework

“…At the same time, the field of robotics continues growing and providing not only physical but also virtual experiences. Both AI and robotics are applied in fields such as medicine (Buchlak et al, 2019;Loh, 2018), marketing (Jarek & Mazurek, 2019), finance (Lee, 2020) and entertainment (Meena, Jingar & Gupta, 2020). However, the field of education needs to keep pace with this changing context.…”