Tag Archive for: artifical intelligence

June 2023 Digital Health Round Up

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With the help of technology, this month cancer patients and scientists are making strides in the fight against cancer. A new artificial intelligence chatbot is available to ease cancer patient’s anxiety by answering questions 24 hours a day. Researchers have discovered that turning off a particular gene in T cells can fight cancer. Scientists have found that injecting particular bacteria directly into a cancerous tumor can fight cancer.

New AI ‘Cancer Chatbot’ Provides Patients and Families with 24/7 Support: ‘Empathetic Approach’

Cancer patients looking for quick answers or support between their appointments can now turn to “Dave”, an artificial intelligence chatbot trained to discuss all things related to oncology reports Fox News. The patient’s questions are mostly about potential treatments and the side effects that can be expected. The chatbot provides answers anytime, day or night, to reduce the patient’s anxiety. The AI is designed to respond with empathy and uses seven years of patient and doctor interactions. These interactions are drawn from a social and professional cancer app. To date, over 10,000 cancer patients have used this chatbot. The chatbot also informs patients of the latest technological advances. “Dave” can provide all kinds of information, however if more specific information is needed, patients are directed to call their doctor. Click here for more information.

Knocking Out Gene Triggers Powerful Anti-Cancer Response

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have made what they believe is a groundbreaking discovery in the field of cancer research. Their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals the importance of a specific gene, SRC-3, in regulating the immune response against cancer reports Science Blog. With the help of gene editing technology, scientists eliminated the SRC-3 gene in T cells. Eliminating this gene caused a lifelong anti-cancer response in animal testing for breast and prostate cancer. Tumors were eliminated without the side effects typically caused by cancer treatments such as chemotherapy. Researchers are doing further testing to use for possible treatment of cancer in humans. In this study, they found that not only were the tumors gone after the injection of the altered T cells, but the tumors did not reoccur over time. Scientists are very hopeful that this research can be used to make better cancer treatments in the future. Click here for more information.

Intratumoral Bacteria as an Injectable Ant-Cancer Treatment

Scientists at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Ishikawa, Japan have developed an anti-cancer treatment that consists of bacteria that are naturally found inside some tumors reports Medgadget. With the help of technology, scientists can separate the bacteria and inject it into the tumor. The bacteria inside the tumor then causes an immune

response to destroy the tumor without any genetic engineering or advanced methods of drug delivery, making it less costly. This method causes less adverse side effects outside the area of the tumor, unlike other treatments. Tumors by nature, have a lower oxygen environment, which makes an ideal environment for bacteria to grow. These intratumoral bacteria get injected into the core of the tumor to cause an immune response. Mouse models using this method show promising results. Click here for more information.

How Healthcare May Be Improved With Artificial Intelligence

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If you have not been up to date with healthcare news, or do not work in any healthcare related field, you may be unaware of the gradual increase how reliant the sector is on technology. Every facet of society has been on an upward climb with how digitized it is, and healthcare is no exception. From breakthroughs as interesting as robotic surgery to standardizing electronic patient notes, both primary and secondary care have grown accustomed to the benefits of how artificial intelligence can benefit them.

In healthcare, introducing new treatment whether based in technology or pharmaceuticals is highly expensive, though great efforts are being taken to increase efficiency, reduce human errors and improve healthcare overall. In the long running of things, this would save the healthcare economy billions in coming decades.

Genomics

There has been a public declaration made by IBM Watson Health to incorporate artificial intelligence to the ongoing battle against cancer. The focus currently lies with later stage cancer patients who are at their most critical points. This is because it is likely current treatments have failed for them, or aren’t strong enough. New treatments could offer them the best chances when facing their life or death situations.

Specific genetic factors involved in cancer can be identified and targeted with idealized therapies. This offers hope to many Veterans in the US, and cancer patients worldwide.

Drug Discovery

It has been about three whole decades since a new effective antibiotic has been discovered. This has led to a seemingly losing battle with the emergence of more superbugs (antibiotic resistant pathogens) significantly often. The journey to discovering new drugs is very expensive, meaning many drug companies have slowed down the process of discovery. However, Pfizer’s use of IBM Watson (technology that utilizes machine-based learning) is pioneering the path to finding new drugs that are active for cancer and immune therapies.

Other drug companies such as Sanofi are using artificial intelligence to find new therapies for metabolic disease; Genentech are also leading the way in cancer research with artificial intelligence from Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Robotic Surgery

The correct term for this is robot-assisted surgery, because though it looks like a robot is handling the surgery from the operating theatre, there is actually a surgeon (or multiple surgeons) that are controlling the robotic tools remotely. This has been rolled out successfully in multiple countries so far. These include the United Kingdom and Dubai. The major benefits of robot-assisted surgery is increased precision and accuracy. There is less room for human error, and more room for improved patient care.

Secondary Prevention

One of three or sometimes four main branches of prevention, secondary prevention relates mostly to medical imaging. There has been a huge surge of technological advances in this area in the past century. The simple ultrasound has become 3D imaging and the simple radiograph has become detailed computerised tomography. New approaches can now be taken, that reveals more information about patients. This leads to clearer imaging, faster diagnosing and better results.

Personalized Medicine

Genetic screening has been more incorporated into healthcare since the sequencing of the human genome in recent decades. With genetic information and associations readily available, more accessible means of accessing patient DNA have been developed. There are now easy methods of reaching a patient’s genetic code and assessing their risk for certain health issues that carry genetic risks.

“Polygenic scoring weighs the linear combination of multiple small genetic variations and are used in predisposition assessment,” says Mary Crawford, tech blogger at Australia2Write and Write Myx.

Visual Assisting

Nursing is investing in the development of virtual assistants, which can take over the role of healthcare assistants and push the healthcare staff population to higher fields of work. Healthcare providers will then be able to maintain continuous contact with patients.

Better Data Security

A major leap in healthcare is digitizing patient records, and rolling out a singular way of standardizing them across the country. Though this is extremely useful for transferring patients from healthcare provider to healthcare provider, it creates room for a cyber-attacks that will steal sensitive data.

“As artificial intelligence increases with patient data storage, it also increases with cybersecurity. Extra security is essential to patient protection,” says Erick Schmid, data analyst for Brit Student and Next Course Work.

Discussing how healthcare may become revolutionized by artificial intelligence may conjure up images of the 1985 movie Daryl. However, the movements are very much real and non-fictional. Productivity is on the rise and medicine has become more business-minded.

Due to its benefits, artificial intelligence is certainly gaining popularity in the healthcare industry and there are developments every year. There are predictions that the involvement of artificial intelligence will grow by 1000% by 2015, pushing it to become a 13 billion dollar industry.

Michael Dehoyos is a medical Blogger at Phd Kingdom and Academic brits. He assists companies in their marketing strategy concepts, and contributes to numerous sites and publications. Also, he is a writer at Case Study Help, academic service.