JANUARY – FEBRUARY 2023
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In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionized many industries, including healthcare.
One of the most notable applications of AI in healthcare is early detection of diseases. AI can analyze large data sets and find patterns that doctors might miss. For example, AI algorithms can analyze medical images to detect early signs of breast cancer or lung cancer, which can lead to earlier, more effective diagnosis and treatment.
Another use of AI in the health field is diagnosis. AI can help health professionals automate diagnostic processes through tools that free them from repetitive work or help them make quick diagnoses, leaving them more time to focus on the most complex cases. On the other hand, AI allows the development of triage tools where the algorithm makes a first identification of cases, detecting studies that potentially have injuries and prioritizing them to the professional. Finally, it enables accessibility to diagnoses in areas where there are no professionals to perform these evaluations, improving access to quality diagnoses.
AI can also be used in patient management. It has the potential to help monitor patients in real time and alert healthcare teams if something seems wrong. It can also help personalize treatment for each patient based on their individual characteristics, which can improve treatment effectiveness and reduce side effects.
However, the use of AI in healthcare also raises ethical and privacy concerns. For example, AI algorithms may be biased if the data used to train them is incomplete or does not adequately represent the population as a whole. Additionally, health data is extremely sensitive and must be adequately protected to avoid privacy violations.
In conclusion, AI has great potential to transform healthcare, from early detection to diagnosis and patient management, and can even help policymakers better understand the problems and needs of their communities by analyzing data from health of a population and determining what public health measures are necessary to improve their health, always with ethical and privacy precautions.
Along these lines, from the Center for Innovation and Implementation in Health Policies (CIIPS) of the IECS we proposed the challenging process of creating a Center for Artificial Intelligence and Health for Latin America and the Caribbean (CLIAS), through a grant awarded by the International Development Research Center (IDRC), which over the coming years will promote the development and dissemination of responsible AI solutions that improve access, care and quality of services, as well as individual decision-making and public policies, starting with the areas of sexual, reproductive and maternal.
AI tools already exist and are part of the future, but they must be used responsibly, with a human-centered design and with the aim of helping decision-makers and health teams to improve access and health care for people. their populations.
At Lic. Cintia Cejas, coordinator of the Center for Implementation and Innovation in Health Policies (CIIPS) of the IECS.