In this blog post, we will examine the possibilities and limitations of whether the development of artificial intelligence medical technology can replace doctors and, furthermore, bring humans eternal life.
Steve Jobs, the icon of innovative convergence, passed away on October 5, 2011. Revolutionary items were created under his hands, but he lost his life in vain due to his failure to treat pancreatic cancer early. The pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor he suffered from is an extremely rare disease that is found in less than one in 100,000 people each year. It is very difficult to visually identify tumors using a camera. Therefore, the diagnosis is made based on the hormones secreted by the tumor and the symptoms it causes. However, in actual clinical practice, it is difficult to diagnose because the disease is very rare and there are cases where there are no symptoms. In addition, since diagnosis is not possible through blood tests, treatment is often delayed. However, in the future, it will be possible to easily detect tumors that are difficult to diagnose early. Not only will there be early diagnosis, but there will also be a future where diseases can be treated immediately after they are discovered. The future doctor who will provide us with early diagnosis and treatment is artificial intelligence. In the future, various forms of medical artificial intelligence will be developed. Various medical artificial intelligences can cooperate with each other to form a competent team that will take charge of the diagnosis and treatment process. And this team can take on the form of a very small team that can travel anywhere in the world.
In Korea, there are no regular meetings on AI used in the medical field. In Europe, on the other hand, AI forums and meetings in the medical field have been held regularly for more than 30 years since 1985, and a professional journal has been published since 1998. The main topics of the meetings were technologies for diagnosing diseases and finding the causes based on data. Artificial intelligence is more capable of analyzing data than humans. Therefore, data is the key ingredient that enables AI to demonstrate its capabilities. AI uses ‘big data’ that has been collected in a meaningful way. ‘Big data’ here does not simply mean a large amount of information. It means finely refined information that brings new knowledge. Big data meets three conditions: fast availability, large volume, and diverse forms of information. The AI medical team will be divided into three main tasks. First, a team is needed to collect data for diagnosing diseases. Then, there is a team that analyzes the data obtained to diagnose diseases. The data analysis and diagnosis team uses deep learning from electronic medical records to provide doctors with useful treatment methods and diagnoses. Once the diagnosis is complete, a micro robot that can be treated early will play a role.
Let’s take a look at the team that obtains data from the medical team composed of artificial intelligence. To take a closer look at the role of the medical team, let’s assume that the team is taking images to find cancer cells. The team is largely composed of two parts: artificial intelligence that improves the quality of the images taken and artificial intelligence that obtains objective data. Artificial intelligence that improves the quality of images creates statistical models based on data. Based on the statistical model, it determines whether the information in the image provides useful data for diagnosis. Patch Group Prior Based Denoising (PGPD) technology can be used in this part. PGPD technology removes noise, which is information that is determined to be not useful for image interpretation. And in its place, it inputs new information that has been organized into a statistical model by comparing it with surrounding information. Data is used as the key in the process of finding and correcting parts of the video that do not aid in interpretation. Using big data acquired in advance, artificial intelligence can construct a statistical model and use it to correct the video.
After correcting the video, data must be extracted from it. Before the development of artificial intelligence, there was no separate processing process when obtaining the recorded video. Specialists used the photos as they were for diagnosis. Recently, technology has been developed to extract more objective information from images taken by a computer. The computer converts the image into digital information, then analyzes the brightness of the pixels and the context of the surroundings to quantify and provide quantitative values. This method uses the surrounding context to restore blurry and difficult-to-distinguish areas. Artificial intelligence obtains information about the size, shape, and texture of the cells in the captured image. The information on the size, shape, and texture obtained here is data that can be used to find cancer cells later.
Once the process of extracting data is complete, it must be analyzed in earnest to make a diagnosis. The diagnosis made by artificial intelligence is not based on simple knowledge based on the patient’s symptoms. Artificial intelligence makes a diagnosis by collecting information based on accumulated big data. Big data is created through the process of extracting data, converting it into a single form, and storing it under an analyzable system. The artificial neural network model is used as a method of using accumulated big data. The artificial neural network consists of an input layer, multiple hidden layers, and an output layer. The input layer first receives data and then passes it to the first hidden layer of the neural network with the highest degree of association. The data that reaches the hidden layer is processed mathematically in a complex way, finds the association, and passes through the process of being passed to another hidden layer before finally reaching the output layer. Every time the hidden layer is moved, the data is processed and the degree of association with a specific hidden layer is repeatedly modified to achieve high accuracy. In a medical situation, the input is the symptoms and patient information, and the output is the diagnosis.
Once the diagnosis of the patient’s disease is made, it is good if the disease can be treated immediately. If the disease is not severe enough to require surgery, it can be treated in a simple way using artificial intelligence. This is done by inserting a micro robot into the blood. The micro-robot can recognize the location of cancer cells, circulate in the blood, find them, and remove them. The method of injecting the robot into the blood is also a great help in the treatment of chronic diseases. Diabetes requires continuous blood glucose measurement and control. Therefore, artificial intelligence can monitor the condition of the blood at all times and determine dangerous conditions. If there is a robot in the blood, it can properly use the hormones that control blood sugar. In addition, artificial intelligence uses artificial neural networks to prevent medical errors during surgery for treatment. It can prevent mistakes that may occur frequently due to the need for quick judgment, and it can prevent mistakes during the critical coronary artery bypass grafting procedure. Artificial intelligence with a neural network model analyzes the relationship between the decision made and the situation in a short period of time to identify decisions suspected of being made by mistake.
Once you learn about the capabilities of the AI medical team, you can imagine how it will play a role in the future. Visiting a hospital is not easy and difficult. In the future, the AI medical team will treat diseases at home using a medical kit without the patient having to visit the hospital. The medical kit can be distributed to every household. The kit can photograph a person’s body or analyze blood. The kit uses an artificial intelligence system to obtain data from the photos and blood samples taken. The data is managed by a central control center. The center stores the family history and medical history of individuals, enabling precise analysis of the photos and blood data. The data is analyzed in detail using an artificial neural network model, and a final diagnosis is made. The kit contains a device that can be used to insert a micro robot. The micro-robot receives the diagnosis and the individual’s biometric information and provides appropriate treatment. If these medical kits are mass-produced and distributed, the lifespan of the future will be greatly increased.
Artificial intelligence technology is developing at a rapid pace. The developing artificial intelligence will not only make our lives easier, but also extend our lives. To extend human life, artificial intelligence is contained in a very small kit and creates a medical team consisting of multiple doctors. The medical team performs three main roles quickly and easily. It can take pictures and edit them into high-quality images without leaving the original images. After improving the quality of the images, it obtains objective numerical values from the images that are difficult for humans to judge. The central control center stores big data on the individual’s family history and biometric information. The data obtained from the central control center is sent, and big data and extracted data are combined to begin the analysis. An artificial neural network model is used for the analysis. The final diagnosis is made through the analysis of the data. Even after the diagnosis is made, treatment can be carried out immediately using a micro robot that is inserted into the blood of a person. The micro robot is linked to artificial intelligence, which quickly and efficiently eliminates the cause of the disease and enables the treatment of chronic diseases.
In the future, nanotechnology will develop and it will be possible to include multiple devices in a small space. Therefore, in the future, a small-sized all-purpose medical kit will be developed. As explained earlier, the all-purpose medical kit will help humans to treat diseases quickly and continuously with the help of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence will have a major impact on the medical field by putting a doctor in the medical kit. In the future society, hospitals will not be needed in the long term, and they may disappear. A society in which diseases can be cured without going far or spending a lot of time will be on the horizon. It may be extreme, but as Ray Kurzweil says, the era in which the advancement of AI technology will enable mankind to achieve eternal life may be just around the corner.
