AI Holds The Key To Detect And Treat Fatal Diseases Early, And Make Healthcare Cheaper

According to the Journal of American Cardiology, 34 people die every minute to cardiovascular disease. Additionally, at least 1,300 Indians die of cancer each year according to the National Cancer Registry Programme.

Early detection of these deadly diseases is crucial to their treatment and saving lives. And cutting edge technology is helping us do just that.

The problem is, it's not always humanly possible to notice the signs linked with a particular disease or condition. That's exactly where artificial intelligence comes in.

Siemens Healthineers, the tech company's AI research arm, are working on a new technique for MRI analysis powered by AI, specifically where cardiac MRI's are concerned. The idea is to develop an AI that can independently segment a scan and identify objects (like heart chambers and ventricles) and abnormalities.

This of course requires a form of image recognition as well as other factors, all of which need to be maintained simultaneously. That's why Siemens has just advanced to Intel's latest 2nd-generation Xeon Scalable processors, to improve their workload efficiency for this massive amount of image processing and intelligence gathering.

But aside from a computer possibly being able to spot abnormalities a human can't, there's another benefit to Siemen's AI. For one thing, it can be extensively used in rural hospitals where, even if they have MRI machines nearby, are usually understaffed with radiologists.

"There is a growing workload for a shrinking population of radiologists who can interpret the images the devices generate," says Dr Thoomas Friese, Senior VP of Data Architecture & Technology Platforms at Healthineers. .

With this Healthineer's AI however, the idea is to have the algorithm generate an inference in almost real time. It's just another example of what AI developers are most excited about; edge computing. Where data is analysed and processed eight at the source, instead of sent back and forth between a server. This kind AI can also speed up and improve the efficiency of clinics on average workdays.

To that end, H2O.ai also provides an artificial intelligence service, just of a very different kind.

Instead of a dedicated medical AI or the like, H20.ai basically provides companies and small ventures with an AI quick-build. Using their AutoML template, a new startup for instance can quicker and more effectively set up analytics of their own. Whether that's eventually for gauging sales trends or tracking customer buys is up to you.

The idea here, all three companies say, is to democratize AI. Prakash Mallya, Vice President and Managing Director for Intel India, insists that all kinds of ventures should be able to reap the benefits of AI, whether tiny startups or a mega-corporation.

But for that we need more than just cheaper AI-focused processors. He understands that we also need manpower. And in a specialized field like AI development, the only manpower you get at a nascent stage is what you train.

So far, Mallya says Intel has trained 112,000 people in the AI ecosystem, some as part of school programs, some in partnership with companies, and others on its own. "Adoption of AI is only limited by the complexity of the tools. So if we simplify tools usage we simplify adoption, and more youngsters in the industry ultimately means more AI innovation for everyone."

And all that new talent is crucial to innovation, and AI being applied to advance industries like healthcare. Our methods of detection and treatment haven't really changed in decades, only our tools have improved. But if we can apply AI to early detection systems, patients formerly undiagnosed with serious conditions could be treated early enough to make a difference, thereby reducing the stress on both hospitals as well as indirectly making the drugs needed for these treatments cheaper and therefore more accessible.

Even more importantly, the addition of what's essentially a robotic workforce in hospitals and clinics could help make healthcare itself more accessible for people in poor and remote communities, especially in India.

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