Opinion: Applying AI to Clinical Care Is Key to Individualized Medicine

Not only can artificial intelligence revolutionize healthcare, it could help restore the doctor-patient relationship.

| 3 min read
eric topol

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
3:00
Share

Machines can now be trained to see things humans cannot, and likely never will. Researchers have recently demonstrated this principle in applications involving a wide range of biomedical imaging. From obviating the need to stain pathology slides, to finding rare cells without cytometry, to characterizing skin lesions, retinal scans, chest X-rays, brain CT scans, heart MRIs, and much more, AI stands to change the way we do medicine (See “Artificial Intelligence Sees More in Microscopy than Humans Do,” The Scientist, May 2019).

This advance relies on deep neural networks, systems of artificial neurons that can accurately and rapidly detect complex patterns. It’s an approach to artificial intelligence (AI) that has gathered remarkable momentum since it was introduced about a decade ago, and today chiefly relies on supervised learning—that is, the ground truths of accurately labelled images that are used to train the network. And so-called deep learning is proving its ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here

Keywords

Meet the Author

  • Eric Topol

    This person does not yet have a bio.

Published In

On Target July Issue The Scientist
July/August 2019

On Target

Researchers strive to make individualized medicine a reality

Share
3D illustration of a gold lipid nanoparticle with pink nucleic acid inside of it. Purple and teal spikes stick out from the lipid bilayer representing polyethylene glycol.
February 2025, Issue 1

A Nanoparticle Delivery System for Gene Therapy

A reimagined lipid vehicle for nucleic acids could overcome the limitations of current vectors.

View this Issue
Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

sartorius logo
Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Lonza
An illustration of animal and tree silhouettes.

From Water Bears to Grizzly Bears: Unusual Animal Models

Taconic Biosciences
Sex Differences in Neurological Research

Sex Differences in Neurological Research

bit.bio logo

Products

Photo of a researcher overseeing large scale production processes in a laboratory.

Scaling Lentiviral Vector Manufacturing for Optimal Productivity

Thermo Fisher Logo
Discover a serum-free way to produce dendritic cells and macrophages for cell therapy applications.

Optimizing In Vitro Production of Monocyte-Derived Dendritic Cells and Macrophages

Thermo Fisher Logo
Collage-style urban graphic of wastewater surveillance and treatment

Putting Pathogens to the Test with Wastewater Surveillance

An illustration of an mRNA molecule in front of a multicolored background.

Generating High-Quality mRNA for In Vivo Delivery with Lipid Nanoparticles

Thermo Fisher Logo