Your A.I. Doctor Will See You Now...

[Music] Around one in five people around the world will develop cancer in their lifetime, with one in nine men and one in 12 women dying from the disease. Basically, for every six people that die around the world, one of them dies from cancer. Cancer is one of the scariest things in the world, and rightfully so. It's said that if you live long enough, cancer will inevitably come for you.

It's no surprise that our society has been trying to find a cure for cancer, basically since we knew what it was. With artificial intelligence, we stand a better chance than ever in this war against cancer. This is how AI is transforming Healthcare.

In a recent study, researchers from the University of Toronto and ENC Silico Medicine used a computer program called Alpha Fold along with a tool called Pharma to speed up the design and synthesis of a drug that could potentially treat Hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of primary liver cancer. The AI tool found a new target to attack the cancer in a molecule that would stick to that target. This molecule could be included in a new cancer treatment drug. The researchers completed all of this in just 30 days.

Now imagine what they could do with more time and more powerful AI tools. We're still at the early stages with tools like Alpha Fold, and the problem is that cancer isn't just one thing; it's not just one disease like the flu. It's a multitude of diseases requiring different treatment plans and cures. But scientists have realized that right now our best chance at fighting cancer is being able to diagnose it as early as possible.

This is where we can see just how incredible artificial intelligence can be. Last year, I went to Japan, and while in Tokyo, I went to a pastry shop with seemingly endless supplies of pastries. There were pies, cakes, sandwiches, croissants—anything you could ever want. When I picked up everything I wanted, I went up to the register, put all my pastries on the counter, and what I thought was the cash register fired up these green lights that scanned all my pastries.

The screen then displayed everything I bought and how much I owed. This was one of the more subtle tech things I had seen in Japan, and so I didn't think anything of it. A couple of months ago, I read an article titled "The AI Pastry Scanner That's Fighting Cancer," and that's when it struck me that wasn't just a cash register. It was an AI used to recognize all the different types of pastries I bought, and now that same AI that was designed for bakeries is being used to diagnose cancer.

A doctor at Kyoto's Lewis Pastor Center for Medical Research discovered that some cancer cells look almost exactly like donuts under a microscope. So, he contacted the team that created the AI bakery scanner, and Cyto AI Scan was born. Today, the cancer-diagnosing AI can identify cancerous urinary cells with up to 99% accuracy. The same technology is also being used to differentiate pills and locate problems in mechanical engineering.

Artificial intelligence has taken over our world in the past couple of years. ChatGPT got a million users in 5 days, and its parent company OpenAI has just taken the world by storm again after releasing Sora, their text video AI platform. This platform has gotten even the best video creators in the world worried. However, what we don't often hear about—because it's not as exciting—is what AI is doing in the world of healthcare.

According to Harvard School of Public Health, using AI to make diagnoses can reduce treatment costs by up to 50% while increasing health outcomes by 40%. So, you're getting much better care at half the price. In one study, U.S., German, and French researchers used AI to scan more than 100,000 images to identify skin cancer. They found they got better results than the 58 international dermatologists who were given a similar test.

Several studies have also shown that AI is already better at spotting malignant tumors than the best radiologists in the world. When you consider that artificial intelligence is only going to get better, you can see why those in this field of research are excited. In many areas across the globe, there aren't enough physicians to meet the population's needs. Researchers in the field of medical technology believe that AI can be used to fill this gap.

Imagine a world where anyone with just an internet connection can access health information quickly and conveniently. And no, I'm not talking about Googling your symptoms only to be told you have cancer. Google researchers have developed an experimental diagnostic AI called Amy, Articulate Medical Intelligence Explorer, that aims to replicate the feeling of talking to your doctor through a large language model. You provide your symptoms through the text chat interface, and Amy asks you questions and gives you treatment recommendations based on your answers, just like any doctor.

Researchers behind Amy claim that it outperforms clinicians in diagnostic accuracy and performance. If you understand how LLMs work, this isn’t surprising. We've already talked about how good AI is at identifying patterns with medical imaging, and it's the same thing here, just with disease symptoms. Right now, Amy is still experimental and has limitations, but this gives us a glimpse into the future.

What is available right now, though, is AI transforming the administrative tasks in the world of healthcare. When we think of healthcare, we have to think of talking to a doctor, getting surgery, and grabbing meds from the pharmacy. But what we don't often think about is all the administrative work that goes on behind the scenes to make our experience of going to the hospital as seamless as possible.

Today, the average nurse in the United States spends 25% of their work time on regulatory and administrative activities. Through research, the main thing I've realized is that AI isn't here to replace doctors and other medical health professionals—at least not in the near future. Right now, the most impactful thing AI can do is help with things like these administrative tasks, the more mundane and monotonous side of healthcare that we don't really like to think about, to allow the human physicians the time and mental capacity to perform more complex tasks.

One of the best examples of this is the sponsor of today's video: MedBright AI. MedBright AI is a publicly listed company that has created Med Matrix, an AI-powered data analytics platform that helps to align the resources of clinics with the needs of patients in a way that improves both patient and physician satisfaction. The platform has this great tool called AI Resource Matcher that basically acts as a virtual assistant to the front desk in a clinic.

This tool analyzes all the patients' needs and handles everything from scheduling visits to matching patients to the appropriate resource they need within the clinic. This helps to improve the clinic’s on-time performance and overall efficiency. Med Matrix also features other tools like a claim optimizer that analyzes top reasons for claim denials, a reporter that provides data reporting with a complete dashboard of the clinic's operations, and a revenue enhancer that helps the clinic to find opportunities for revenue growth based on the current patient base and revenue model.

Tools like this are amazing for outpatient clinics and enable them to manage their patients better and generate more revenue that allows them to provide even better patient care. To check out the tool and everything else MedBright has to offer, click the link at the top of the description.

One of the biggest challenges the healthcare industry faces is us, the patients. You see, there's only so much a doctor can do with the limited time they see in the hospital. The bulk of the work that goes into keeping you healthy has to be done by you. Research has shown that the more patients proactively take care of themselves, the better the outcome of their treatment.

The problem, though, is that many people don't have the required knowledge or willpower to follow through with the plans and make the behavioral changes necessary to improve their health. Thankfully, this is another area in which AI can help. Machine learning can be used to personalize care to a level that would be impossible for a human physician. A machine will also be there 24/7 and can implement things like message alerts and timely checkups to ensure patients are sticking to their treatment plans.

Right now, ChatGPT is being used to help patients with diabetes better understand their diagnosis and treatment options. Researchers have also found that it can help them monitor their symptoms and adherence to treatment, provide feedback and encouragement, and answer their questions. ChatGPT and other similar tools can also be used to rewrite the treatment plan that's been prescribed by medical professionals into different reading levels and possibly languages. This reduces the barrier of entry for the patient to understand what they need to do and empowers everyone, regardless of education level, to take better control of their health.

There is a concern with using AI in healthcare, though, and that's the data. Who gets access to your healthcare data? How much more information do we want to give Silicon Valley tech companies about ourselves and our health? The infamous Golden State Killer was caught decades after his crimes through an open-source DNA database. He never submitted his DNA, but investigators linked crime scene samples to the DNA of his extended family.

There have been other cases where criminals have been caught in a similar way, and you might say this is a good thing, and it is. But where do we draw the line? Today it’s used to catch criminals who got away; tomorrow it might be used to catch peaceful protesters whose only crime is disagreeing with the government of the day. There’s also the issue of insurance companies using this health information to inflate insurance prices for people predisposed to certain illnesses.

We would have to fix these issues before we can dream of a world where AI and doctors work hand in glove to save lives. And to be honest, that future is incredible when you envision it. Because even if a world where you’ll be completely attended to by an AI doctor is still a fair distance away, or even might never come, the world today is already filled with amazing tools that are pushing the needle of medical care forward.

At least for now, there are some things humans will always be better at than AI: things like dealing with complex or otherwise sensitive information like mental health issues, chronic illnesses, and end-of-life care. AI also has to still pass the hurdle of trust, because if the public doesn't trust AI, it won't be able to help them with their health effectively.

Current research on the use of AI in healthcare has mixed results. On the one hand, some studies show that people do trust AI for things like diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring, with around 80% of Americans willing to use these tools to help manage their health. On the other hand, 60% of people in the same study were uncomfortable with healthcare providers relying on AI for medical care. So, there’s still some work to be done in building public trust.

That's what companies like MedBright hope to achieve with their AI tool: to build trust in technology by making the hospital and human clinicians easier to access and better equipped to do their jobs. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, algorithms—whatever name you decide to call them—these tools are transforming our world at a much faster pace than we ever could have imagined.

We talk a lot about the dangers of AI, but the truth is, in the right hands, artificial intelligence can do incredible things. Who knows? Maybe one day it’ll help us find the cure for cancer. But even if it doesn't, we at least know it’ll help us find it before any human can.