“If you want to predict the future, look at what rich people have today”. It is a quote by Hal Varian – Chief Economist at Google. Toby Walsh, a leading researcher of artifi cial intelligence (AI), used the quote at a panel discussion of the future of medicine. He used it to describe the personalization of healthcare in the future. Making a statement based on the quote by Varian, Walsh predicted that all of us end up with personal doctors in the future. Technology is the catalyst that transforms the world of medicine. This transformation will be pioneered by large amounts of data and AI. AI serves as the bridge between the collected data and personalized medicine. The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning helps build models to collect and analyze data. The process of data collection is not a novel exercise. It has become a part of our everyday life. We wear Fitbit devices that act as fitness monitors and pedometers. Our data is collected by these devices daily. The government proposal to have digitized electronic health records is an extension of the idea. It provides the doctors with a comprehensive medical history of the patient. It probably promoted the idea of having a unique health identity in the country. The foundation, however, was laid in the latter half of the 20th century. The advent of medical genetics and the discovery of the DNA structure paved the way for personalized medicine. It opened up the possibility of treating patients based on their genetic code. The result of these discoveries was the creation of the Human Genome Project. The project collected genomic sequences of 20,500 human genes. The published results of the project provided great insights into the study of disease and their treatment. Findings that emerged out of it form the basis for personalized medicine. The idea of personalized medicine is in its infancy. Lack of technological capacity to compute massive chunks of data, coupled with the complexity of the human body, slowed its progress. However, applications for personalized medication driven by AI fi nd use in oncology and molecular medicine. The treatment is provided by studying the genetic markers of the patient. It helps doctors in the early detection of tumors and cancerous cells. In addition, the use of AI helps doctors identify the mutations in the genetic material and provide targeted treatment to the patient. It helped patients diagnosed with leukemia, lung cancer, kidney cancer can get better treatment. Taking the idea of targeted treatment forward, researchers intend to make use of AI in molecular medicine. Molecular medicine will build upon the gains of pharmacogenomics. Aided by AI researchers want to gain a deeper understanding of how drugs interact with genes. It would enable determining the efficacy of a drug at a personal level. And people will have drugs prescribed that are compatible with their genetic makeup. Risks posed by AI make the medical fraternity tread with caution. But the idea of personalized medicine is gaining acceptance. Overcoming the apprehensions between medicine and technology is a slow process. This exciting new frontier of medicine is the beginning of an AI-led revolution in medicine.
10 Jan 2022
Vijayhardik Josyula
