Healthcare AI for Individuals
“So we need two things: first, we need ways of predicting and detecting disease well before it becomes life threatening; and second, we need medicines that work for you and your unique body.”
―Pieter Cullis, The Personalized Medicine Revolution: How Diagnosing and Treating Disease Are About to Change Forever
Studying all the sets of a genome or complete sets of genes within a particular organism is known as Genomics. Let’s say, you have decided to make a new dish and read an instruction manual. The instruction manual is like our genetic code which instructs the cells to function in a particular manner. The study of the instruction manual is known as Genomics. As a field that can read the working methods of a cell can help solve huge issues that a human body faces. The global genomics market size is expected to reach USD 27.61 billion by 2025. It is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 8.6% during the forecast period. The past decades have witnessed significant changes in disease management processes due to simultaneous advancements in genomics and personalized medicine. There has been a gradual growth in the usage of genomic studies in clinical practices, which is reflected by the growing trend of targeted therapies.
Genomics as a field creates a huge amount of data that is used for research and development. Artificial intelligence (AI) is highly valuable in this area of study as it accelerates the time it takes to get from information to insight. With the right implementation techniques and data targeting, machine learning models can help in creating major breakthroughs. Genomics as a field is no strange to technology and is already making leaps and bounds of progress using this technology.
Precision Medicine
AI has already drastically reduced the cost of sequencing and is bound to reduce the cost even further. As we move forward, the use of AI can help boost precision medicine available to each and every one. According to the Precision Medicine Initiative, precision medicine can be defined as “an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person.”
With an increasing number of datasets, the Healthcare industry can leverage the fast computational techniques that our AI-based systems have in their artillery. In place of treating generalized symptoms, AI can help medicine shift towards prevention, personalization, and ultimately precision medicine. This will help in the medication of individuals precisely for themselves and could potentially improve lifespan by a year at average globally. With the advent of digitization, the industry is bringing healthcare experts and Data Science experts to create novel solutions.
For example, CRISPR is a gene-editing technology that is being used to target DNA sequences precisely. With this, medical experts can deliberately activate or inhibit certain genes in human beings. This demonstrates that there is a strong ability to target an individual’s distinctive molecular and genetic profile, thus opening up new opportunities for personalized medicine.
I would like to conclude with a brief observation, precision medicine won’t be the last stop of the human touch in healthcare. An industry that deals with human lives will always require human intervention. Precision Healthcare will reduce costing of medicines and provide a better life service to the whole race. The next few blogs will focus on multiple areas of usage and techniques for implementing AI in Genomics and Precision Medicine.
