AI in medicine
Eric Topol: "Artificial intelligence in medicine: how smart technologies are changing the approach to treatment." Review
Elina Stoyanova, "Biomolecule"
Most often, loud tabloid headlines that machines will replace people even in medicine are more frightening than inspiring and talk about a bright future. Eric Topol's book is designed to expose those who create artificial excitement, shed light on real achievements in the field of artificial intelligence implementation in medicine and remind that only a person can show humanity, calm down with a touch and understand what bothers the patient by minor gestures. Technology will return to the doctor why he chose his profession — the opportunity to save lives and help people.
To write this book, Topol has done a great job: the bibliographic list includes 712 sources, and the number of examples can make your head spin. But do not be afraid, sometimes difficult-to-understand examples of using algorithms in evaluating indicators are interspersed with simple and illustrative examples from the author's medical practice. The same applies to the illustrations in the book (they are black and white): graphs from various articles alternate with visual diagrams that do not carry excessive load.
At the same time, the style of presentation itself is quite easy to understand, which is also achieved by high-quality translation. It is worth noting that the author looks at the topics raised from different angles, he is flexible in his views on the problems and emphasizes both the advantages and disadvantages of using AI in medicine.
"The network (system) approach in medicine will take AI is in service: it will help to see, understand and understand how process X is related to processes Y and Z (for example, how brain signals affect blood pressure levels or how the microbiome can increase the risk of cancer)."
In total, there are 13 chapters in the book, one succeeds the other in a strict logical chain. After getting acquainted with the application AI in medicine should be the designation of common problems — again, in medicine: a superficial assessment of the patient's condition, inaccuracy in diagnosis, insufficient qualifications of doctors. Poplar, though, points out the obvious flaws of colleagues in the shop, but at the same time does it delicately and immediately stands up for the doctors, leading the reader to the fact that the introduction AI in medical practice will allow doctors to avoid mistakes.
The author emphasizes that the incorrect introduction of technology into medicine kills it. The introduction of electronic medical records, although it led to the creation of data libraries, but at the same time deprived the doctor and the patient of much-needed contact at the reception. Now the doctor looks at the monitor while the patient tells him his story, touches the keyboard keys longer than necessary instead of carefully performing palpation.
Topol considers unfounded fears that AI will be able to replace humans. For true doctor—patient contact, an empathy ability is needed, which the machine does not possess. Therefore, one of the author's greatest hopes is to save the humanistic foundations of medicine through the introduction of AI. While algorithms are looking for patterns among huge amounts of data and predicting the outcomes of therapy with one approach or another, the doctor can devote himself to the patient — listen, feel, sympathize. After checking with the output of the machine — and then make a conclusion.
"This will improve the working conditions of many doctors — both due to the rapid and accurate interpretation of images, as well as the ability to see what is inaccessible to human vision, and due to the removal of a computer keyboard from the offices, which will restore the atmosphere of participation and live communication during a medical appointment."
Implementation is already underway AI in drug development is absolutely normal. In silico, the development allows you to reduce the cost of preclinical research, and consequently, the total time before the patient receives a means of combating pathology.
"Artificial intelligence will help extract useful information from complex data arrays, including millions of nucleotide sequences in genomes, complex structures of the human brain, integrated data streams received in real time from numerous sensors that register vital signs."
The book is a mastrid for students-geneticists, biochemists, bioinformatics, doctors.
"Future doctors need to understand more deeply the sciences related to data processing, they need bioinformatics, computational biology, probability theory, the basics of deep learning of neural networks. A significant part of their efforts aimed at examining and treating patients will be supported by algorithms, and doctors need to understand their shortcomings in order to avoid prejudices, mistakes and misinterpretation of results, and maintain common sense."
The material from the book can be used for training: it has many examples and links to the latest articles in the field of implementation AI in medicine — and not only. It is worth taking note of representatives of pharmaceutical companies and everyone who works in the field of drug development. Perfect for reading and IT professionals working in the field of Machine Learning and Data Science. And also to everyone who is interested in new technologies and medicine.
About the author:
Eric Topol is an American cardiologist, scientist and writer. After graduating from the University of Rochester Medical School, he received a diploma with honors. He is the founder, director and professor of Molecular Medicine at the Scripps Research Institute. Topol is also the editor—in-chief of Medscape. He has written three best-selling books about the future of medicine: Creative Destruction of Medicine (2010, not translated into Russian), "The Future of Medicine. Your health is in your hands" (2016) and "Artificial Intelligence in Medicine: How Smart Technologies are changing the approach to treatment" (2022).
Topol is the author of more than 1,200 peer—reviewed articles with more than 310,000 citations (Hirsch index 235). The main scientific interest is the introduction of artificial intelligence and genomics achievements in the field of personalized medicine. In addition, Topol participated in the development of drugs such as t-PA, Plavix, Angiomax and ReoPro.
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