Artificial Intelligence in Medicine

Abstract

“Do no harm” is a basic principle that all healthcare professionals must adhere to. The oath introduced by Hippocrates thousands of years ago is still valid and taken by physicians to this day. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no exception from this, as a physician does no harm while using it in medical procedures. One must admit that AI is everywhere and is affecting almost all aspects of life.[1,2] Its impact on health and medicine can be felt and is real. It is unlikely to replace physicians or health workers in general, but the opportunity exists for AI to augment their practice in several ways if properly developed and used. AI can assist in the following ways: Reduce administrative burden and increasing patient–doctor contact time. Fast and accurate diagnostics for diseases. Some of these diseases require immediate action otherwise they will become more severe; others require further study, specialization, and tools to diagnose. Enhancing monitoring of chronic conditions and patient self-management using sensors and many other personal gadgets. Reduce human errors through assisting clinicians by relieving them of monotonous and time-consuming tasks. As a result of fatigue, clinicians may commit avoidable mistakes which compromise patient safety. Hospital to Home care, which allows virtual presence through telemedicine and remote presence robots. Doctors can engage with their staff and patients in hospitals or clinics and assist or clear their queries, without the patient leaving home. Predicting future events based on previous health and medical conditions. Cost reduction as AI assistants provide online care and assist patients to add their data more frequently via online medical records, etc. This mode of service can reduce costs, time spent, and provide healthcare service in a more equitable way. Health and medical services target Universal Health Coverage (UHC)[3] in many countries. The goal of UHC is to ensure that all people obtain the health services they need, including prevention, promotion, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliation, without risk of financial hardship now and in the future. AI has the potential to help in achieving UHC and the sustainable development goals more quickly and more efficiently.[4] AI poses several ethical challenges that healthcare professionals and, in particular, physicians encounter daily. These challenges are basically inherited in AI until it is mature enough and safe to use for treatment, for example. Responsibility for decisions made, evidence-based practices, bias with and against, privacy of patients, confidentiality of data, security of systems, and regulatory compliance are known to practitioners, researchers, and students of medicine. The use of AI in health and medicine has added other challenges to this list, such as hallucination,[5] inequity and financial management, knowledge and digital divide, data quality, aggregation, integration, transparency and trust, fairness, empowerment of individuals, by having the means to look at personal health data, data governance, and accountability. AI depends on the data collected to build the model; therefore, it inherits all the challenges that data possess. Health and biomedical data are diverse in format and can come from multiple sources, which makes building an AI model much more challenging than the “usual” one. As for the Arab countries, they have started investing in AI and its applications, which requires the Arab Board of Health Specializations to work on building health and medical digital content in Arabic to process Arab-produced data, because it is supposed to address matters that individuals and societies in the Arab world care about. My biggest fear is that healthcare workers in the Arab countries will depend on what has been exported to them, including software, hardware, robots and medical equipment without considering the cultural, religious, language, and of course, ignoring the needs of the patients in Arab countries. Healthcare data aid in better understanding of diseases,[6] their causes and symptoms, and of affected populations, especially in global health. It is; therefore, a valuable resource that benefits both individuals and society. Health data play a crucial role in improving patient care, research, and planning healthcare services. It may come from different sources, among the most important is medical/health records, which include demographic information (name, date of birth, address, ID number), medical data such as health conditions, illnesses, medicines, treatments, and contact with healthcare professionals. This editorial is a wake-up call for all healthcare workers in the region, especially innovators, to consider health data from the Arab countries and to consider the development of AI that fits the needs of the citizens in the region. Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest.

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