i3 - January/February 2019 - 30

"AI is also being used
to diagnose and treat
diseases such as
cancer earlier
and more
accurately."

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

behavior in individuals and help
with the proactive management of
a healthy lifestyle. It puts consumers in control of their health and
wellbeing. Health professionals
also gain a better understanding of
the day-to-day patterns of their
patients and can provide better
feedback, guidance and support.
AI is also being used to diagnose
and treat diseases such as cancer
earlier and more accurately. For
example, Houston Methodist
Research Institute's use of AI software reliably interprets mammograms, assisting doctors with a
quick and accurate prediction of
breast cancer risk. The AI software
intuitively translates patient charts
into diagnostic information at 30
times human speed and with 99
percent accuracy. Or consider
Cyrcadia's iTBra, a wearable sensor
used to screen for breast cancer at
earlier stages. Early trials of the
wearable among 500 patients registered an 87 percent successful
cancer detection rate, even with
patients with dense breast tissue,
which often hides small tumors.
Another AI-driven cancer
detection system built by
researchers at the University of
Heidelberg in Germany, pitted an
AI system against a team of dermatologists and found that the AI
achieved a 95 percent accuracy in
identifying skin cancers, compared to the 86.6 percent achieved
by trained professionals.
Heart health is also receiving
strong interest. Researchers at
Oxford University developed AI to
interpret ultrasonic scans of the
heart. The goal is to assist cardiologists in detecting subtle changes
and identify signs of heart disease
more accurately. Ultromics, a
British startup, has developed a
machine learning platform which
aims to reduce errors diagnosing
coronary artery disease by as much
as 75 percent. The proliferation of
consumer wearables and other
medical devices combined with AI
is also being applied to oversee

early-stage heart disease, enabling
doctors and other caregivers to better monitor and detect potentially
life-threatening events. An
AI-based Apple Watch app,
Cardiogram, has been able to detect
an abnormal heart rhythm with 97
percent accuracy. The same app
can also detect sleep apnea with a
90 percent accuracy and hypertension with an 82 percent accuracy.
A new wave of AI chatbots could
help ease pressure on overstretched health care professionals
by reducing the need to make inperson appointments. The goal of
apps like Babylon, Ada, Your.MD,
and Dr. AI is to make seeking
advice about a medical condition as
simple as using a more-reliable
WebMD. Unlike self-diagnosis
online, these apps lead the user
through a clinical-grade triage process. In the future, not only will
these tools parallel humans in diagnosing diseases, they will perform
them on timelines that are impossible for humans to match. This
efficiency is of tremendous value
in a field where time is quite literally a matter of life or death.
Machines built with AI will
likely challenge the traditional
role of the doctor or nurse. But
they are unlikely to replace the
need for high-trained clinical
minds any time soon. AI systems
currently work on a narrow range
of tasks and will need human
input, particularly in the form of
professional expertise, for years to
come. Its real benefit lies in freeing up health care workers from
dull and repetitive tasks enabling
them to spend more meaningful
time with their patients. As these
technologies take shape, they will
lead the current health care model
from primarily treating illness to
keeping patients healthier longer.
After all, an ounce of prevention is
worth a pound of cure.

2019

CES 2019 See AI in health at
the Health & Wellness
Marketplace.
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

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they don't need to seek professional care as often. The
use of AI in a wide range of connected health applications is already helping people to manage their own
health care and engage in healthier lifestyles.
Examples in this area include the WELT smart belt
which debuted at CES 2016. By dynamically tracking
waist size and tension, the smart wearable determines
when the user may have overeaten and sends an alert
via its smartphone app. The Fitbit coach app, paired
with a Fitbit wearable, has one of the largest health
databases, and takes advantage of complex algorithms
to extract meaningful insights from user data, to provide highly-tailored workout recommendations.
Apple's Health app and Apple Watch work in a similar
fashion. Meanwhile, YAZIO calorie planner integrates
data from multiple wearables/apps and analyzes other
aspects like diet, nutrition and activity to get a bigger
picture in terms of personalization.
Another wellness area ripe for AI assistance is mental
health. Addicaid is a "counseling assistant" app which
leverages clinical research, machine learning and adaptive AI to predict when a person might be at risk of
falling into addictive behaviors and offers personalized
treatment options. Another product in development is
WoeBot, built by Stanford psychologists and AI experts.
It tracks a user's mood through brief daily chat conversations and offers curated videos and word games to
assist people in managing their mental health.
These AI applications and others encourage healthier

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i3 - January/February 2019

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