Six trends for the use of artificial intelligence in health

07 February

The Norwegian Board of Technology (Teknologirådet) recently launched a report predicting how artificial intelligence will contribute to the future of clinical health care. Chief Research Scientist Michael A. Riegler from SimulaMet was part of the expert group for the project.

 

The project group has pointed out six trends for the use of artificial intelligence in health, and discuss the opportunities and challenges they might bring. 

The report (in Norwegian) is available through this link. 

The report is written by Anne Siri Koksrud Bekkelund, who is also the project leader from the Norwegian Board of Technology. 

The trends discussed in the report are: 

  1. Primary health care goes digital: Computer systems based on artificial intelligence can speak the language of the patient, and provide both quick and accurate answers. 

  2. Healthcare professionals are assisted with digital assistants: Virtual health assistants can assist healthcare professionals in clinical decision making by finding the best treatment or monitoring a patient. 

  3. The merge of diagnosis and treatment: Artificial intelligence can compile relevant information from many different sources. This will make a doctor's process to place a diagnosis faster, and more accurate. 

  4. Everyone can monitor their own health: Home and body sensors have become normal equipment in our everyday life, and can register everything from a heartbeat to a tone of voice. Artificial intelligence interprets the data, and provides users with ongoing information about their physical and mental health. 

  5. Equipment is constantly improving itself: With the help of artificial intelligence, the software in medical devices can learn from a continuous stream of data. The result can be equipment that is able to improve and update itself continuously. 

  6. More efficient early prevention: Machine learning can assist in the process of discovering people with increased risk of diseases, and help to implement preventative measures.

Expert group

  • Damoun Nassehi, General Practitioner and Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Stavanger. Member of the Norwegian Board of Technology

  • Doctor Helga M. Brøgger, head of Norsk radiologisk forening

  • Michael Riegler, Chief Research Scientist at SimulaMet and Associate Professor at UiT

  • Erik Fosse, Professor/Head of department at the Intervention Centre at Oslo University Hospital

  • Steinar Madsen, Medical Director at the Norwegian Medicines Agency