The Healthcare and pharmaceutical industry is going through a transformation, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. So much so that PwC in their report predict a 7% hike in the healthcare cost by 2024. 

The reason? Healthcare & pharmaceutical workers are overworked and facing some serious burnout. In such a situation, the need for automation becomes more prominent than ever! This is where technologies such as artificial intelligence step in to smoothen the operations and increase efficiency. 

In this blog, let’s dive into the exciting world of Generative AI and how it’s shaking things up in healthcare and pharmaceuticals. 

1. Drug Discovery And Development

Drug discovery is a rather time-consuming process. However, with the aid of generative AI, pharma companies can not only speed up the process of drug discovery but also significantly reduce the costs associated with the same. 

According to a report, using AI in drug development processes significantly accelerates the synthesis and screening of new compounds. This can result in a notable time reduction of 40 to 50 per cent compared to traditional methods. 

Moreover, it leads to substantial cost savings, potentially reaching up to $26 billion annually within these research phases. AI achieves this by employing advanced machine and deep learning techniques to simulate drug properties and identify the most efficacious compounds.

Insilico Medicine is a pharma company that’s using AI to establish a completely novel drug discovery process that is entirely driven by artificial intelligence, covering every stage from start to finish.

2. Medical Image Analysis And Interpretation

Generative AI is going to play a significant role in analysing, interpreting and even re-generating Medical images such as X-rays, MRIs, CT scans, PET scans, etc. Gen AI can not only enhance image quality but also assist doctors and medical professionals in identifying irregularities, injuries and other medical conditions. 

Gen AI can improve the quality of medical images by reducing any kind of noise, improving the resolutions and extracting the exact region of interest. Generative AI is like a smart eye, an eye that can detect even the smallest of details that a human eye might miss. 

A recent investigation revealed that computer systems assisted by CNNs can identify brain tumours in MRI images with an accuracy rate as high as 98.56%

A research paper published in the National Library of Medicine states that in the field of radiation oncology, AI is utilized across various types of images employed at various treatment phases, such as outlining tumours and evaluating treatments. 

Radiomics, which involves extracting numerous image features from radiation images efficiently, is currently a leading area of focus in medical imaging research. AI plays a crucial role in handling the vast volume of medical images, revealing disease attributes that might not be identifiable to the human eye. (Tang X, 2019)

3. Personalized Treatment Plans

Generative AI uses a large language model (LLM) to train on tonnes of data to provide accurate results. In the case of healthcare, Gen AI can analyse the data associated with a patient’s medical history, lifestyle history, genetic data, etc., to curate treatments aimed at particular diseases and symptoms. 

Gen AI has the power to transform the healthcare industry by enhancing patient outcomes with accurate diagnosis and improved treatment plans. 

According to research by Cornell University, generative models are gaining popularity for producing medical images. Recently, neural diffusion models have shown promise in creating highly realistic images of objects. The findings show that the diffusion model-generated images can capture features unique to specific medical conditions in chest X-ray or CT images. With precise adjustments, this model shows significant promise.

4. Patient Data Anonymization And Privacy Protection

With the integration of Generative AI, the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry is also addressing critical concerns regarding patient data privacy. This technology plays a pivotal role in protecting patient data, ensuring that sensitive information remains confidential and compliant with privacy regulations.

By employing advanced algorithms, Generative AI can remove personally identifiable information from medical records, enabling healthcare providers and researchers to analyze data patterns without compromising patient privacy. 

This not only safeguards individual rights but also paves the way for more robust and secure data-driven healthcare solutions.

According to Health IT Analytics, Augmentation PETs (privacy enhancing technologies) utilize past data distributions to create authentic datasets, offering protection for patient privacy. These datasets serve to supplement current data sources, either by enriching a limited dataset or by generating entirely synthetic ones. This process enhances the usefulness and accessibility of datasets employed in analytical endeavours.

5. AI-Assisted Diagnosis And Decision Support Systems

With the assistance of vast datasets and sophisticated algorithms, AI-driven systems can provide invaluable insights to healthcare professionals, helping in accurate diagnoses and treatment planning.

These systems analyze patient data, medical literature, and clinical records to offer evidence-based recommendations.

 For instance, IBM’s Watson for Oncology uses AI to assist oncologists in developing personalized treatment plans by sorting through a vast repository of medical literature, clinical trial data, and patient records.

So these were the top 5 generative AI use cases for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry. Generative AI is truly bringing a new era in healthcare and pharmaceuticals. From expediting drug discovery to revolutionizing medical image analysis, and personalizing treatment plans, the potential applications are boundless. 

As the industry continues to evolve, embracing Generative AI promises not only enhanced efficiency and cost savings but, most importantly, improved patient outcomes and a brighter future for healthcare worldwide.

At Systango, we’re at the forefront of the Generative AI revolution, having helped numerous industries harness its power. Now, it’s your turn. 

Ready to revolutionize healthcare and pharmaceuticals? Get in touch with us today and let’s embark on this transformative journey together!

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