COMP3330 History Assignment

Artificial Intelligence Applications In Medicine

Introduction

Abstract

Artificial intelligence applications in the field of medicine have traditionally used expert system (and knowledge-based system) technologies, and been limited to diagnostic applications.

However, other approaches to using AI have been (and continue to be) explored with varying degrees of success within medical applications; these include the use of artificial neural networks, intelligent DSS (decision support systems), case-based reasoning, fuzzy logic, natural language processing and intelligent agent systems. This report shall discuss these various approaches, and their effects on the field of medicine.

Purpose Of AI Systems In Medical Applications

Artificial intelligence systems in medical applications are intended to:

support healthcare workers in the normal course of their duties:
Medical AI systems can assist with tasks that rely on the manipulation of data and knowledge. An AI system could be running within an electronic medical record system, for example, and alert a clinician when it detected patterns in clinical data that suggested significant changes in a patient's condition.
 

provide new medical knowledge:
AI systems have the capacity to learn, leading to the discovery of new phenomena and the creation of medical knowledge. For example, a computer system can be used to analyse large amounts of data, looking for complex patterns within it that suggest previously unexpected associations. Equally, with enough of a model of existing medical knowledge, an AI system can be used to show how a new set of experimental observations conflict with the existing theories.

AI Technologies In Medical Applications

The various AI approaches to medical applications are examined in the following sections:

Expert systems

Artificial neural networks and genetic algorithms

Intelligent DSS

Case-based reasoning

Fuzzy logic

Natural language processing

Intelligent agents

A timeline is also provided, on the same page as the conclusion, to illustrate the significant developments in the history of AI in medicine.