Is AI the Key to a Healthier Future?

Taking care of Health.

It is widely believed that Generative AI has the potential to revolutionize various cognitive tasks performed by humans. However, the healthcare industry globally continues to face a plethora of issues across socio-economic, political, and technological spectrums, with profitability often prioritized over health. Can Generative AI help to transform human health as well?

The definition of health by WHO in 1945 emphasizes the importance of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, rather than just the absence of disease. However, our medical education and healthcare systems have focused on treating specific diseases rather than promoting overall health and quality of life.

Should we prioritize health over disease? The present moment offers an opportune time to make use of the diverse range of sensors and data sources to gather information about all aspects of life of an individual. By integrating AI to effectively process this data, healthcare can be transformed to prioritize overall health rather than simply managing diseases. However, the ongoing healthcare debate often prioritizes payers, providers, and employers, neglecting the active participation and primary stakeholder position of patients. To truly revolutionize healthcare into health care, patients must be given a more active role.

The 21st century has brought a transformative data and information revolution in almost all facets of human society. It empowered global personal communication through mobile phones and made people untethered to location. Location-independence in communication is revolutionary. And the ability to have all the worlds knowledge and information accessible to you through the same device is the biggest resource we have. The trend in most service areas is a shift from professional care to self-care through technology, with the AI revolution now enabling tasks to be completed through simple verbal descriptions of our intentions. Our phones have now become our information source, shopping mechanism, and logistics management mechanism.

Despite information technology’s transformative influence in many areas of society, healthcare has been largely unaffected. The emphasis on episodic care and the belief that being disease-free equals health often results in the treatment of symptoms rather than underlying causes, leading to late detection of chronic conditions. Prevention and treatment of chronic diseases are most effective when based on an individual’s lifestyle rather than reactive medical intervention.

Homeostasis is the body’s way of keeping everything in balance, even when things around us change. Think of it like the thermostat in our house that keeps the temperature comfortable no matter what the weather is outside. Cybernetics was inspired by this idea to create complex systems that can adapt to different situations and function smoothly.

Our body is also like a machine that needs certain things to stay healthy, such as food, exercise, rest, and a positive mental state. But sometimes, we make poor choices that can lead to health problems. As the owner of our body, we have the most control over managing it.

Thanks to technology, we can now gather data about our lifestyle choices and their effects on our health and use this information to create a personal model of our body. With this model, we can determine our current health status and receive recommendations on how to live a healthier life. Think of it like having a personal health coach who can guide you towards better choices for a happier and healthier life. And all this using our phone!

Despite being a global leader in technology and innovation, the United States’ healthcare system fails to prioritize patients, resulting in increasing costs, stagnant outcomes, and a worsening care experience. Although data and AI are increasingly used for disease diagnosis, their healthcare applications remain limited. Despite being the world’s most expensive healthcare system, it delivers mediocre results, a widely acknowledged fact.

Something needs to change in the healthcare system, and the solution lies in putting people back at the center of the system. Patients should be an integral and important part of healthcare, not just another cog in the machine. The healthcare industry must prioritize empathy, compassion, and human connection to deliver quality care that meets the needs of patients.

Our environment and lifestyle play a huge role in our overall health, accounting for over two-thirds of its impact. In contrast, medicine only contributes around 10%. While we are responsible for our own health, managing it through lifestyle can be challenging due to the complex interconnections between biology, lifestyle, environment, and social factors, as well as the availability of knowledge required to make informed decisions.

We can draw inspiration from widely used navigation systems, which leverage data and knowledge encoded in digital maps, track users’ positions via GPS, and account for different modes of transportation, operating in diverse conditions and adjusting for uncertainties with a feedback loop. Similar to this approach, a Personal Health Navigator (PHN) can estimate our health state, monitor relevant variables, and guide us towards achieving our health goals. By sharing our health goals with the PHN, it can adapt to changing conditions and socioeconomic status, providing a personalized solution for improving our health. The best part? It can all be done through a phone, using data from wearable sensors and other commonly available sources.

By leveraging AI and data, we can build a Personal Health Navigator (PHN) now, giving us unprecedented control over our health. It’s time for healthcare to utilize AI and transform health by presenting the right lifestyle choices to users. With the PHN, we can take proactive steps towards achieving our health goals and improving our overall wellbeing. The time for action is now. The technology is ready, but the question is, are we?