AI

Precision Medicine, The Risks of Robotics and How Susan Potter Will Live Forever

THE PRECISION MEDICINE INITIATIVE defines precision medicine as “an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person.”

One of the biggest opportunities for artificial intelligence is its potential to power precision medicine systems and to pioneer a future in which every patient is treated as a true individual. We’re already on our way thanks to private companies like 23AndMe and huge scientific efforts like the Human Genome Project.

Are We Ready for The Explosion in Healthcare Data?

We’ve reached a pivotal point in time at which we already have the possibility to create an “Internet of People” through everything from smartwatches and other wearables to electronic implants. But this comes with an interesting quandary when it comes to who’ll have ownership and access to the data that we create. In an article for the Wall Street Journal, professor of law and computer science Dr. Andrea Matwyshyn argues, “Using the human body as a technology platform raises a host of challenging legal and policy questions that regulators and judges may not be prepared to answer.”

Implementing an AI Strategy

The goal of AI should be to take human ingenuity and to attach a rocket to it, blending technology with ethics, accountability and inclusive design to empower as many people as possible. AI should benefit society, not dehumanize it. That’s why it can help to think with a “humans-first” approach. If it’s not adding value to humans, you have to ask yourself why the AI exists in the first place.

Black Box Health and AI’s Applications in Healthcare

I have a vision of the future which I’d like to share with you. You’ve probably heard of black boxes before because they’re used in planes and other vehicles to monitor everything that happens while they’re in use. When a plane crashes, investigators look for the black box so that they can identify what happened. Similar technologies power telematics devices, which can be installed in cars and used to gain insights into how they’re being driven. Some car insurers now base their customers’ premiums on the data that they receive from the telematics device.

An Introduction to Natural Language Processing

Natural Language Processing is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It’s an umbrella term that’s used to refer to the ability of machines to process and understand language as it’s written or spoken by human beings. While it would be nice to think that our languages make logical sense and follow basic rules of grammar and punctuation, we all know that’s not always the case. We use slang, proper nouns, abbreviations and acronyms, and not everyone can string a sentence together like Stephen King or J. K. Rowling.

Machine Learning Made Easy: What it is and How it Works

Machine learning is the process by which a machine learns something. The end.

Only joking. We’re going to dig a little deeper than that, but it does go to show how simple the basic concepts of machine learning can be. In this article, we’re going to make machine learning so easy that a child could do it. That’s why we’re going to use LEGO.

The Power of Healthcare Data and Why We Need Decentralization

It’s no coincidence that in both my book and in this article, I’ve started talking about data by using a quote from Sherlock Holmes. The world’s most famous consulting detective used the data he gathered in each of his investigations to arrive at a conclusion, and he was doing this as far back as 1887. We all create huge amounts of data on a daily basis, and yet none of this makes it into our health records. Today’s healthcare system, then, is much more Dr. Watson than Sherlock Holmes — and it’s a Dr. Watson who’s trying to theorize before he has data.

How AI, Machine Learning & Other Technologies Can Revolutionize Healthcare

In my book, The Future of Healthcare: Humans and Machines Partnering for Better Outcomes, I spent a lot of time talking about how AI, machine learning and other technologies can revolutionize the field of healthcare. What I didn’t tell you is that they can also revolutionize the field of competitive gaming. Google’s DeepMind has taught itself to play a number of Atari gamesincluding Atari Breakout, and YouTuber SethBling has created a cleverly-named program called MarI/O which uses “neural networks and genetic algorithms [to kick] butt at Super Mario World.”

Emmanuel Fombu, MD, MBA, is a physician, author, speaker and healthcare executive turned Silicon Valley entrepreneur.
Dr. Fombu champions the potential for the internet of things, artificial intelligence and machine learning to revolutionize the healthcare industry.