How Artificial Intelligence Can Change the Pharmacy Landscape

Recently the World Medical Innovation Forum met this past month in Boston, MA, with a theme focused on artificial intelligence (AI) in health care. Now AI has been a hot topic as of late, especially in regards to how we can use it to help streamline workflow, adoption into electronic systems to parse out data, and even the few articles about how 'AI will replace [insert profession here].' That being the case, I want to highlight several areas that seem to be of a high priority, and were talked about from the meeting to give an idea of where AI could be seen in the next decade being utilized.¹

Melding Mind and Machine

Essentially, how can we tap into what the brain is doing with current technology, and figure out how to take the electrochemical framework and reproduce it into actionable events? Now, this is more than, say, thinking of a message and having it then sent via phone as a text message to your friend. Instead, a more realistic, and closer possibility would be to determine what processes are involved in movement. This would have an excellent application for prosthetics, and other patients with neurological diseases or disabilities that could benefit from such technology. To me, that's a more realistic and probable development in the next decade based on currently conducted pilot research, which seems to be moving along quickly at this time. I just wouldn't plan on anything else significant for awhile.

Next-Gen Radiology

Now we are getting to a sore topic, depending on who you ask in the medical sphere. Radiological images for years have been screen and analyzed by radiology specialists. (My floor at the outpatient clinic has a suite of rooms of people in the dark staring intently at their screens I walk by, on a daily basis). Yet, the question has become whether we really need to have such a high-cost cadre of specialists involved.

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