Part 2: How Technology Is Causing A Medical Revolution – Best Uses Of Artificial Intelligence In Healthcare

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integral to our lives, endless debate has followed in regard to which side of the fence you sit on: is this advantageous to the way we live, or will it cause an apocalyptic end to humanity? Only time will tell. But one thing surely everyone can agree on is the monumental benefits we reap from the use of AI in healthcare.

AI has forever changed the way that the healthcare sector operates around the world. Not only can this technology make healthcare systems more efficient by improving the productivity of care delivery, but it is allowing medical practitioners to work quicker and more directly with their patients, reducing the risk of their burnout.

Whilst listing all the ways in which AI has rejuvenated the healthcare system would simply take too long, below are some companies that speak to this point for themselves. Each is harnessing the power of AI to make innovative and life-changing improvements in the global medical sphere. From improving how medical research is conducted, to aiding the accessibility of healthcare services, to changing the way we treat mental and physical illnesses, these platforms are using AI in some of the most ingenious and creative ways around.

For more companies using AI to change the healthcare scene, see Part 1 HERE.

With our focus on healthcare, smartR AI’s expertise lies in behavioural intelligence, interconnections to IoT and smart devices, generative AI, and how AI applications can be used optimally for complex scenarios. alertR™ by smartR AI – A behavioural intelligence-based alerting system providing speedy support and assistance to protect vulnerable individuals. smartR AI’s proprietary engine, alertR, provides highly personalized warnings and alerts based on individuals’ behavioural intelligence through understanding, interpreting, predicting and responding to data gleaned. Using physiological, behavioural, and external data sources to help people overcome personal challenges, alertR applies AI applications such as machine learning, deep learning, NLP, and reinforcement learning.

• alertR reduces the risk for users through personalized predictive and preventive actions. By identifying and understanding unique user behaviours, characteristics and habits, alertR analyzes and determines deviations from personal norms and the severity of the deviations.
• The alertR application keeps users constantly updated. Status and progress can be monitored through a dedicated dashboard, phone, wearable or website.
• alertR interconnects individuals with numerous platforms, including phones, sensors, the Internet of Things (IoT), social media, messaging platforms, community groups, geolocation tools, and personal connections. As intelligence moves to the edge of the network smartR AI is all about doing things the smartest way.

One of the critical parts of the healthcare system is proper and clear documentation of the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment plans (often known as a SOAP note). These notes are structured as a guide to walk through the clinical reasoning framework and are important documentation of the follow-ups and communication between the patient and provider as well as the health status of the patient. However, these notes can also be tedious and time-consuming for a provider to write. Thus, they are often not as rich or complete as they should be, especially for a busy provider who is seeing multiple patients at a time or moving quickly from patient to patient. Soundry has thus built generative AI capability into our EHR and practice management system to save providers time. With just a few inputs using the customer demographic information, diagnosis and service codes, Soundry can generate rich notes, which the provider can then just edit. This saves the provider a lot of time versus crafting paragraphs of text themselves first.

Soundry Health is an innovative EHR and billing-in-one solution. Using Generative AI to save solo practitioners time, Soundry’s vertical focus enables product innovation that solves problems. Soundry was designed specifically to help integrative and complementary care providers increase their revenue and save time and money, so they can focus on patient care and grow their business. Soundry is the only company in the integrative care market offering a software-enabled insurance billing service integrated into a complete practice management platform.

BackHug

BackHug is a smart therapy device that delivers professional-level back therapy to people in the comfort of their own homes or place of work. BackHug’s mission is to transform the lives of over ten million people in the UK living with back pain. Designed by engineer turned physiotherapist Chongsu Lee and manufactured in the UK, BackHug offers in-app physio consultations to assess users’ needs, with over 2,000+ personalised treatment programme options through its subscription service from £89 a month.

BackHug reduces backaches by de-stiffening joints with 26 robotic human-sized fingers that adapt to your unique back curvature using its proprietary ‘Spinemap’ technology, which monitors users’ back tension, changing over time to allow the user to see confirmation of its outstanding therapeutic benefits after each session.

The robotic fingers loosen stiff joints in the back, neck and shoulder blades. Stiff joints are the root cause of most of the pain we experience but cannot be treated by other devices and are too hard for human therapists to treat, making BackHug the first truly effective solution for joint stiffness and the aches and pains it causes.

Tachmed

There’s no denying that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have the capability to bring about positive change across all aspects of healthcare. That being said, building patient trust is key, and something that the industry must take seriously.

Over recent years we’ve seen a growing number of digital health devices being launched, and while these have certainly made patients more aware of their own health, they have raised important questions about trust and credibility.

The Tachmed digital diagnostics device uses graphene biosensors to test for various different conditions, including COVID-19 and flu. The tool has been designed to act as the main point where information about a person’s health is collated. Via ML and AI-enabled technology, this data is then automatically processed and shared securely with the relevant parties.

The AI then makes decisions based on the data, calculating what behavioural changes or therapeutics are required to improve that person’s health. If a prescription is required, the process can be automated or a follow-up appointment can be booked with a GP. Essentially, patients are getting a consultation with a doctor via a virtual front door.

As these devices can be used for a range of different conditions, the technology will also transform how those living with chronic health conditions manage their own health. This might be identifying symptoms earlier or taking preventative measures to ensure their condition does not deteriorate. Given the huge pressures facing the NHS, this sort of technology provides a viable solution to ease the backlog and reduce the ever-growing waiting lists.

Stanley

Stanley is the UK leading provider of AI wearable technology solutions to help improve workplace safety and cut accidents.

By partnering exclusively with AI specialists Modjoul, WearHealth and Ansell, it provides wearable workplace AI solutions to help improve workers’ safety and well-being and make sure that daily tasks can be performed without injury or suffering from musculoskeletal disorders like back pain linked to repetitive movement.

The Modjoul and WearHealth solutions, available from Stanley, combine an AI-driven vision processing technology to assess ergonomic risk within repetitive tasks in minutes together with wearable technology which monitors an entire workforce for corrective behavioural change. One of the key benefits of these new wearable AI technology solutions, aside from improvement of health and wellbeing, is the detailed real-time data that businesses can collect, related to the workplace environment, and the tasks carried out.

The technology is continuously measuring and tracking progress allowing companies to obtain granular reporting on bends, stooping, crouching, reaching, and carrying. This data is invaluable in helping the workplace to operate more efficiently,  improving workplace well-being and informing future health and safety policies.

Mira

Mira offers the accuracy of lab tests in the comfort of the user’s home. Mira is the first and only company to integrate lab technology into a palm-sized fertility monitor. By utilizing a precise fluorescent detector, Mira goes beyond traditional methods, revolutionizing fertility monitoring. This shift transforms the game from basic ovulation kits to having a mini hormone lab at your fingertips for everyday health checks.

Mira’s flagmanship product, Mira at-home mini lab, is equipped with an absolutely unique AI. While applying Mira wands, Mira AI-powered analyzer provides an opportunity of tracking four key fertility hormones such as LH, E3G, PdG, and FSH. This way it empowers the users with a comprehensive knowledge of their hormonal status and helps them to identify any issues that might prevent them from getting control of their reproductive health.

While Mira’s AI knows and analyzes the fluctuations in fertility hormones across multiple cycles for over 76,000 people, it is not only educating women on their health and closing the gender health gap, but also gives them the confidence to advocate for themselves, ask the right questions, and even monitor their own hormone levels at home.

As Mira AI-powered analyzer allows for quantitative hormone measurements in urine, it replaces traditional blood sampling within fertility care, offering patients a more convenient and less-invasive alternative. Individuals can monitor their hormone levels directly from their homes—reducing the need for frequent clinic visits and as well minimising testing costs.

Altris AI

Altris AI can identify, localise, and quantify pathologies in almost every disease of the macula and retina based on a scanned image with 98% accuracy. It’s based on 5 million optical scans and can detect and interpret 74 pathologies and pathological signs, including age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy. The platform is already installed in more than 70 eye clinics and optometry centres, and more than 1000 eye care practitioners use it regularly from all over the world.

Altris is a great example of what’s going on in the AI space. While it may seem most AI applications are about generating blog posts and illustrations with ChatGPT and Midjourney, Altris is leveraging the recent progress in machine learning to tackle difficult problems in healthcare. We’re likely to see the same approach applied in other areas of health.

Altris AI is like Grammarly for eye care specialists: it does not strive to replace humans but empowers them with a decision-making support tool, while the doctor still determines the final diagnosis. But it could help provide a more accurate diagnosis or ensure the doctor won’t miss anything.

Altris AI also launched a free educational mobile app to assist doctors in fighting blindness and teach them how to analyze OCT scans interactively. Inside the app, Altris AI also publishes the latest research articles, creates quizzes, and motivates eye care professionals to engage in discussions. With this app, Altirs AI creates a community of like-minded doctors who learn OCT together and stimulate each other by sharing cases — it has over 15.000 users with a monthly growth of at least 700.

Navina

Navina is an AI-powered platform for doctors that transforms chaotic patient data into proactive primary care to improve provider experience, clinical outcomes, and value-based care performance.

Ronen Lavi, CEO of Navina, previously established and led the AI lab of Israel’s renowned intelligence unit in the IDF (Unit 8200) and has a deep understanding of real-time decision support systems. He saw a similar need in healthcare, which is the first AI-based model specifically designed for primary care, capable of understanding the complex language of medicine.

Navina was born with the vision to create a new world where the time-consuming chaos of patient data is replaced by a logical actionable platform that makes it possible for every physician to assess even the most complex cases in minutes. Their technology creates a new era of simplicity by restructuring disorganized data into an intelligible patient portrait, intuitively organized for sophisticated and empathetic patient care.

The company uses AI and machine learning to make sure that what’s most important is immediately clear, diagnostically linked, and contextually surfaced, so physicians can have the entirety of each patient’s data, resulting in optimum patient wellness and enhanced financial performance for providers and payers. Navina is a partner of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Innovation Lab and made the CB Insights AI 100 List for 2023.

Digital Diagnostics

In April 2018,  Digital Diagnostics  became the first company to ever receive FDA clearance for an AI diagnostic platform that makes a diagnosis without physician input at the point of care. This achievement did not happen overnight – it was the culmination of decades of research by founder Dr Michael Abramoff on automated image analysis, combined with decades of research on how clinicians diagnose disease.

Digital Diagnostics’ first FDA-cleared product is the AI diagnostic platform called LumineticsCore™ (formerly IDx-DR), which detects diabetic retinopathy at the point of care. After completing a rigorous prospective, preregistered clinical trial at primary care sites across the country, LumineticsCore became the first FDA-cleared AI diagnostic system to make a diagnosis without physician input at the point of care.

Since then, Digital Diagnostics has diligently worked from within the healthcare system to establish automated diagnosis as the new standard of care. From real-world clinic launch & EMR integration to the creation of the first-ever autonomous AI CPT® category 1 code for billing and payment to inclusion in the American Diabetes Association (ADA)’s 2020 Standards of Care in Diabetes, Digital Diagnostics has proven that intelligent diagnostic platforms can be deployed safely and responsibly to improve patient outcomes and increase healthcare productivity.

Atalan Tech

Led by distinguished PhD scientists from Oxford and UCLA, Atalan Tech is at the forefront of AI-driven healthcare staffing transformation. Fusing cutting-edge technology with healthcare expertise, the company’s innovative approach redefines workforce management.

Central to Atalan Tech’s mission is its pioneering early warning system, leveraging AI algorithms to forecast clinical staff turnover up to 18 months ahead. This empowers healthcare organizations to proactively address impending staffing challenges. Administrators can strategize to minimize disruptions in patient care during transitions.

The system’s impact extends to financial planning. By predicting staffing changes well in advance, institutions can allocate resources wisely and budget effectively. Atalan Tech’s integration of AI proficiency and healthcare acumen not only showcases technological prowess but also demonstrates a deep commitment to enhancing patient care and operational efficiency.

In an ever-evolving healthcare landscape, Atalan Tech’s AI-powered insights illuminate a path forward, ensuring healthcare organizations are prepared for staffing fluctuations. Thus, Atalan Tech stands as a vanguard, enabling healthcare providers to navigate change confidently while prioritizing seamless patient experiences.

Carebox Health

Carebox Health offers clinical trial matching technology with PhD-supervised AI and automation to continuously index patient clinical trial participation eligibility criteria for instantaneous matching of patients’ clinical and genomic profiles with all relevant studies.

Carebox Connect solutions built with this technology have already been visited by over one million patients and physicians. Most clinical trial finders are limited to filtering trials based on condition, location, phase, and the other structured trial data available on ClinicalTrials.gov. The Carebox Connect database starts with that data, but layered on top of that is a proprietary eligibility criteria index that enables matching to patient clinical and genomic data using human-supervised AI with all potentially relevant clinical trials.

Available in tens of languages, Carebox’s condition-based questionnaires enable instantaneous clinical and genomic matching/pre-screening to a single trial, a portfolio of trials for a sponsor or site, or the entire global database of clinical trials.

OMNIMED SmartOR™

OMNIMED SmartOR™ is an intelligent customized network of modular, data-driven technologies that sense, observe and understand the complex activities of modern surgical suites. The platform uses a combination of sophisticated technologies and a software (SaaS) interface to gain access to millions of data points and deliver real-time information to inform decision-making to improve efficiencies, accuracies and procedures critical for improving patient outcomes.