How Machine Learning Can Help Our Health

Machine learning has become a big deal in a variety of industries, healthcare being a prime example. There are a variety of applications for machine learning in this incredibly important field, all of which show great potential in improving patient care. Below, we dive into just a few examples of how machine learning can improve healthcare.

Smart Electronic Records
A patient’s healthcare record is an essential document for their proper treatment, as it will outline their medical history for their attending physicians. As such, the data within needs to be recorded and saved accurately as it is processed into a digital format. In addition, the increasing reliance on technology means that a patient is increasingly likely to communicate with their doctors’ offices via email. This correspondence will also need to be filed and preserved.

Machine learning can be leveraged to assist with both, document classification being used to sort through emails and optical character recognition converting handwritten notes into characters like the ones you’re currently reading. Furthermore, there is currently an initiative in place to develop intelligent health records. These records will combine machine learning with artificial intelligence to assist a physician with diagnosing and treating their patients.

Personalized Treatment
No two patients are alike, differences in their environment and physiology creating different risk factors on an individualized level. Machine learning can also be leveraged to assist in the preventative diagnosis and care of a patient, leveraging predictive analytics and an individual’s health data to better ascertain their risk of certain ailments. IBM’s artificial intelligence (and famed Jeopardy contestant) Watson is currently working with Memorial Sloan Kettering to optimize treatment options for patients based on their medical history and information. Biosensors and other similar devices will soon be paired with applications to make each patient’s treatment effective, ideally assisting a patient in remaining healthy and ultimately decreasing healthcare costs.

Identification and Diagnosis
Finally, we have the crux of keeping people healthy - being able to identify when they are sick. In the fight against many serious diseases, there are vast numbers of medications being tested - in 2015, there were over 800 vaccinations and other medications to fight cancer in trials. Naturally, tests like these produce a veritable ton of data to process, making machine learning an invaluable tool.

These capabilities are being put into action all around the world, addressing a variety of ailments, from cancer to depression to macular degeneration.

Clearly, machine learning is proving to be an invaluable tool in the fight against diseases of all kinds, and this has just been the tip of the iceberg. Not only have there been other medical advancements thanks to machine learning technologies, but processes in every industry have been improved. To learn how you might leverage machine learning to your business’ benefit, reach out to Horne & Benik at (603) 499-4400.