Artificial Intelligence to transform the use of Telemedicine for Remote Healthcare in Developing world.

Healthcare in developing world can be easily characterized by high demand and scarcity of trained health providers, especially physicians and nurses. The gap created by the shortage of these health providers has been filled by various other cadres of health providers in both modern and traditional medicine. Telemedicine has also started to play a major role in supporting the healthcare system at a reasonable scale in many countries around the world.

The major role of Telemedicine in the developing world currently is to help the community-based health providers connect with the more trained health providers for diagnosis and treatment, thus preventing the pain of travel for these services. As the use of Telemedicine grows in health systems to become part of the mainstream care, it is important to have its application grow beyond just the mode of communicating health information. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are playing a major role in broadening the scope of Telemedicine in Developing world.

Application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Developing World:

Artificial Intelligence can transform the use of Telemedicine at two levels: (a) Enabling Frontline Health workers with diagnosis and Treatment; (b) Helping patients and their caregivers with better management at home.

(a) Enabling Frontline Health workers with diagnosis and Treatment: This can be the most impactful application of AI where the dependency on doctors and nurses can be reduced, and more decisions can be made by the health providers in the communities using the power of machine learning. Following are the ways AI can support frontline health workers:

• Diagnosis: AI can provide smart recommendations based on symptoms and medical history of the patients. AI can also be used for analyzing test results and images, such as X-rays, CT scans, ECG/EKG, etc. Frontline health providers would be required to upload patient information and images to the AI system which would provide recommendations to the concerned health providers. With the advancement in AI, these recommendations will become more specific and reliable. Trained health providers can verify using synchronous and asynchronous means of Telemedicine.
• Treatment plans: AI can also help develop personalized treatment plans for patients based on their current and past medical history and the services available in their location. The AI system would take into account patient’s preferences, local conditions and availability of referral services etc. AI algorithms can help frontline health providers identify which treatments are most effective for each patient.

(b) Helping patients and their caregivers with better management at home: Another important application of AI in developing world could be to empower patients and their caregivers at home in better managing their health conditions. This is a growing field and offers a vast area of research in AI field. Following are the ways AI can support patients and their caregivers directly:

• Telemonitoring: Use of Telemedicine devices with the help of AI can be used to monitor patients remotely, checking their vital signs and providing early detection of potential health problems. The vital signs could include blood pressure, pulse rate, respiratory rate, blood oxygen level, weight, and body temperature. AI algorithms can help identify patients at risk of certain conditions and needing urgent attention or further monitoring.
• Patient engagement: Interactive AI tools can be used to improve patient engagement by providing reminders for appointments, medication adherence, and follow-up care. In addition, interactive AI tools can provide answers to common questions and help to schedule appointments.
• Mental health and Chronic disease management: Management of mental health issues and chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, heart diseases can be effectively done through telemedicine using AI tools. Telemedicine applications which provide personalized care plans and reminders, track progress, and offer feedback to patients can be highly effective in such cases. AI can be used to predict patient outcomes, such as the likelihood of developing complications, and to identify early warning signs.

Dr. Shariq Khoja- CEO, Tech4Life Enterprises

drshariqkhoja@tech4lifeenterprises.com