Artificial Intelligence (AI) - Welcome to the future: Ten incredible AI advances in medicine.

Jun 6, 20237 min read

Updated: Aug 26, 2023

In this article, we introduce some recent, cutting edge advances in AI applied to medicine, such as Neuralink's Intracerebral Chips, the Versius Robotic System, bionic arms and legs with applied AI, and surgical Robots, among others. Let's discover ten incredible AI advances in medicine and more.

Literature and movies, as sources of inspiration, creativity, free thought and forward thinking, has shown us humans with robotic limbs, super-developed senses, super-human abilities, robotic assistants capable of detecting, treating and curing diseases of all kinds are today starting to take form, and it is just the beginning. The technology imagined in science fiction past has become reality in the future, and the future .... is today.

Electronics was revolutionized in 1906 by the creation of the "audion", as its creator called it, vacuum tube or triode as it is known today. It was the fundamental piece in the development of computers, radars, television and radio. Its inventor was the American Lee de Forest. As a result, today, more than a hundred years later, the world is revolutionized and fully impacted by one of its products: Artificial Intelligence (AI). And humanity is expected to change its reality as it knows it in the very near future.

Join us as we explore in the first chapter on this topic some of the most recent, and, in my opinion, amazing developments in the field of artificial intelligence.

Intracerebral computer and wireless communication bridges between brain and spine.

Just a few days ago, the FDA approved human testing of the first intracerebral computer, developed by Neuralink, a company owned by Elon Musk's group. This intracerebral computer will be implanted by a robot specially designed to perform this surgery, reliably and exactly where it should go. This device promises to restore, at least in part, mobility and independence to people suffering from tetraplegia, amyotrophic sclerosis, among other pathologies. And it’s only the size of a coin. Musk has mentioned that in the first applications they hope to restore motor skills in people who have little or no mobility, as well as vision in other patients. The call for patients who want to participate in the clinical trials is already open on its website.

However, these are not the only developers of this technology; there are researchers in various other parts of the world as well. It has been news in recent days, a man who has returned to walk after 12 years of having lost mobility in an accident. Thanks to an implant that interfaces with his thoughts, and that restores wireless communication between the brain and the spine, developed by researchers from France and Switzerland. I really think this is one of the most notable advances in the top ten most incredible AI developments in medicine.

Surgical Robotic Systems.

The Versius Surgical Robotic System is a mobile modular robot that complements and extends the work that a surgeon and team can do. It helps to perform minimally invasive surgeries, reduces the risk of post-surgical infection, optimizes access and surgical procedures. It has fully mobile joints, and assigns hand movements directly to the instrument. It also offers a high-definition, stable and integrated three-dimensional visualization, extremely precise, with details in depth perception. Its previous version was Da Vinci, which in 2021 was reverted to Versius.

AI-enhanced prosthetic bionic arms and legs.

Until recently prosthetics could offer simple tasks such as opening and closing the hand and arm, but it becomes complicated when trying to rotate the wrists, knees, or each finger individually, because the muscles that move such structures are no longer there. What the AI does in this case is through a glove on the existing hand. When the user moves the hand, the data glove will record the intended movement, while a peripheral nerve interface records nerve signals from the missing arm. As a result, the patterns of the nerve signals and the specific movements of the hand are correlated thanks to the AI system's learning of this. And the AI decoder can thus recognize and trigger for the missing limb several "fine" movements at once, such as pinching, for example, which involves the movement of the thumb and index finger simultaneously.

Of course they are not perfect, but they promise an experience exactly like real hands, in the very near future.

Another improvement currently in process is to create a closed two-way human-machine communication loop with the prosthetic hands and some objects. This will allow the interface with the neural decoder to manipulate objects by thought alone, as a form of telekinesis. They are also developing systems for users to have tactile sensation and proprioception (which is the ability of the body and nervous system to sense movement, action and position in three-dimensional space).

At the University of Utah, they have developed a prosthetic leg, and according to its creators, it’s the "best ever created". It combines robotics, neuro-engineering, Artificial Intelligence, medical service and patient care. It uses state-of-the-art motors, processors and AI. They hope it will give amputee patients the strength and mobility to perform actions that most people take as normal and warranted.

Neuromorphic computing chip.

It's a wearable microchip that will increase medical precision. This chip is capable of processing large amounts of information in real time. This will take medical wearable technologies and medical data processing to another level. It is a flexible mini chip-computer, which uses electronics, AI, machine learning, and is made of polymers. It is capable of measuring medical parameters such as sugar, metabolites, oxygen, immunological molecules, among others. But it will also be able to contrast this information with that in the patient's medical history, and parameters set specifically for each person, and with patterns within a large database, to be able to give conclusions about the patient's health status in real time. This chip is not just a typical computer chip, but functions like the human brain, storing and analyzing information in an integrated manner.

Cancer therapy and artificial intelligence.

Several facets of cancer therapy may be improved. For example, we know that the processes of drug discovery, development, validation and administration are time-consuming and costly. These processes are just some of those that could be improved in an efficient way thanks to AI, machine learning and neural networks, since they would be considerably accelerated by obtaining multiple solutions thanks to AI, representing an improvement on the near horizon for cancer therapy.

Intelligent databases (CancerVar) have also been developed. Until now, databases with information on cancer patients, clinical cases, and interpretation for thousands of cancer somatic mutations have been performed "manually". Thus producing some contradictions and discrepancies, not to mention that new mutations not yet documented were not systematically interpreted, leading to more errors. All this without taking into account that these are time-consuming processes. Databases with integrated AI and deep learning are making this process extremely easy, as automatic and standardized interpretations of more than 13 million somatic mutations can be made. In addition, it can predict the oncogenicity of variants based on clinical and functional characteristics.

Rehabilitation and Training in Virtual Environments

Research centers such as the Ken Kennedy Research Institute for Robotics, Neuro-Engineering and Artificial Intelligence. are developing AI and robotic systems, which have as their main objective, adaptive training in a simulated environment and with artificial force signals. Also addressing, should problems arise, when humans and robots interact in virtual training and rehabilitation environments. How does this work? The trainee has an exoskeleton on the arm, which has a haptic feedback device included. This device displays signals and transmits additional information to the trainee beyond the physical laws governing the simulated environment. For example, it sends him information on the desired trajectories achievable, the desired scanning speeds, the appropriate interaction forces during the performance of the training. Of course this is individually tailored to each individual and his or her needs.

Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, depression, obesity, are some of the diseases that affect a large part of the world's population, and the impairment in the quality of life of the sufferers can be overwhelming. To this end, neuro-engineering applications are being investigated to better understand the connectivity of neuronal circuits, and with this they are already developing "closed loops" of neuronal stimulation, minimally and/or non-invasively, in real time to mitigate these ailments.

If all this wasn't enough, they are also developing data-driven statistical learning tools to help scientists make discoveries!!!

Real-Time neural activity

Systems that translate neural activity in real time, allowing manipulation of the hippocampus, and this would selectively inhibit memories of traumatic episodes.

While they are also developing other systems that will help in the physiology and neurophysiology of language, neuronal connectivity and the cognitive capacity of the brain, for short-term memory.

AI and Nanotechnology

Thanks to nanotechnology hand in hand with AI, specific cells of the nervous system can be monitored to intervene in their functioning from their intracellular structures.

A thin camera and a software system, which can decode and activate neurons in our cerebral cortex.

And this is just the beginning.

Conclusion

We'll speak more in future articles, as well as other new devices that include the cutting edge of AI. If we take into account that artificial intelligence is one of the most recent technologies, it reached a very useful stage of development in only a few short years. It also has a kind of positive feedback loop; many of the developments and new applications enhance future iterations, even when they are not closely related to each other. Like the example of the tool that aims to help scientists make more discoveries!

And if this is still not enough, AI is combined with sciences and elements such as nanoscience and technology, metamaterials, neuro-engineering, biomedicine, bioengineering, robotics, among others. And that could change the history of humanity as we know it, diseases and illnesses could be considerably reduced, solved or eliminated.

Medicine and health will acquire a new meaning. There is no doubt we are already "there"... WELCOME TO THE FUTURE.

About the author:

Maria Soledad Gomez has more than 10 years of industry experience working in a variety of roles within regulated industry, healthcare and medicine, including food/beverage, hospitals and veterinary medicine. Maria Sole writes technical articles on a wide variety of topics in the medical field.

About the translator / editor:

Brian Hoy has over 20 years of experience in the medical device industry and business formation, supporting the full lifecycle with global scope. Brian consults for industry and provides general advisory and off-hours support.

#IA

#AI

#artificialIintelligence