Sharing patient data by applying machine learning in hospitals

Federated learning is a new and promising approach to make the adoption of machine learning and patient data sharing possible in the medical field.

Despite the widely popular application of AI and Machine Learning across industries, the healthcare sector always hesitates to embrace the technology of the future due to privacy problems. The concern for patient confidentiality has always been the dilemma impeding the adoption of machine learning or the potentials and the power to transform the healthcare landscape.

Sharing patient data by applying machine learning (Photo: HealthCatalyst)

Federated learning comes as the solutions for the dilemma as the technology generates almost identical results as the method that is not protected does. Federated learning was first used by Google to train an algorithm through several decentralized computers containing local data samples, without sharing them. And the method shows great potentials in brain imaging,  analyzing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of brain tumor patients and distinguish healthy brain tissue from cancerous regions.

For instance, doctors in different parts of the world can enter their patient scan data, training on a shared model, then the new model will be transferred to a centralized one. By doing that, the model has gained the knowledge front he hospital and generate useful clinical data.  "Traditionally, machine learning has used data from a single institution, and then it became apparent that those models do not perform or generalize well on data from other institutions.", said Spyridon Bakas.

In regard to tumor boundaries, Bakas the opinion not only varies from person to person but also differs from one day to another of the same doctor. "Artificial Intelligence allows a physician to have more precise information about where a tumor ends, which directly affects a patient's treatment and prognosis.". He said.

In the research to study the effectiveness of the new technology, the outcomes that have been produced by federated learning are little to no significant differences compared to the other methods. The technology opens a new promising field that needs more study, expanding the application of the use cases and industries other than healthcare.

Source: Science Daily.

About us: TMA Solutions was established in 1997 to provide quality software outsourcing services to leading companies worldwide. We are one of the largest software outsourcing companies in Vietnam with 2,500 engineers.

Visit us at https://www.tmasolutions.com/

Read More

AI to enhance customer experience (Part 2)

Artificial intelligence is expected to transform the industry landscapes ranging from retail, healthcare to manufacturing. 

With AI, businesses from a number of sectors are optimizing consumer service by speeding the processing of activities, gaining more insight into customer attitudes and expectations, and offering innovative applications to improve customer experience.

Making online car purchasing easier

For the automotive industry, the in-person customer experience is key in convincing a potential lead to come to a buying decision. Given the current pandemic situation where people are trying their best to avoid human-to-human interaction, technologies preventing the risk of contraction thrive across all sectors including. And AI strategy plays an important role in transforming the marketing digital channel of car dealers to attract and approaching customers.

Many customers who do not own a vehicle are now considering owning one because of limited or abandoned use of public transport, and are looking to perform purchases online and reasonably quickly. The application of AI tools including an online chatbot that invites shoppers addresses general questions and gathers lead information on behalf of car dealers to direct customers to relevant information based on their interests and needs. The algorithm is being constantly changed and evolved to help clients find the right choices.

Making online car purchasing easier (Photo: Autocar)

Moving data entry to bots to add efficiency

As part of its customer engagement policy, healthcare providers have used automation to simplify the delivery of acute and outpatient registrations and therapeutic forms. 

Robotic process automation (RPA) is being adopted to deliver customized texts to patients with the clinical forms required for various types of visits. “We are reducing the time needed in clinic ahead of the visit, which provides tremendous patient satisfaction. Our patients like completing this work when it’s convenient for them.”, Smith said. In another word, the healthcare industry is moving the role of data entry from conventional caregivers to bots, resulting in substantial efficiencies and savings.

Source: CIO ASEAN

About us: TMA Solutions was established in 1997 to provide quality software outsourcing services to leading companies worldwide. We are one of the largest software outsourcing companies in Vietnam with 2,500 engineers.

Visit us at https://www.tmasolutions.com/

Read More

5G Will Accelerate The Digital Transformation of Healthcare During The Pandemic

5G technology has already been in trial in many countries to combat COVID-19, especially in the healthcare sector. 

The pandemic is having tremendous impacts on every aspect of our daily life including healthcare. The epidemic, thus, has been the push for the digital transformation of the medical and pharmaceutical sectors. Telemedicine seems to be the new normal of the medical checkup and diagnosis since people try their best to avoid any in-person meeting with the doctors.

Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm President, stressed the crucial role of mobility in the field, bringing potentially great benefits for patients who are inconvenienced to access healthcare services during the pandemic. Added to that, 5G could accelerate the effort to transform the healthcare system online with the availability of existing technologies. By adopting 5G, the regular checkups and doctor visits could be made easy and efficient remotely.

5G will accelerate the digital transformation of healthcare during the pandemic. (Photo: Doctor in Progress)

Although telehealthcare has been adopted by hospitals in some ways before, it is the COVID-19 that encourages transforming healthcare online. The drive for telehealth along with 5G technology could create solutions to combat COVID-19, providing care for patients at risk of virus contraction. Speed, coverage and responsiveness are three aspects that 5G is predicted to boost in wireless networks. The advancement in mobile network technology such as 5G is essential in sharing information about medical documents, especially sophisticated imaging and real-time reports. The low latency of the new technology is said to be the greatest advantage that will smoothen and speed up the transfer of data.

Source: CNET

About us: TMA Solutions was established in 1997 to provide quality software outsourcing services to leading companies worldwide. We are one of the largest software outsourcing companies in Vietnam with 2,500 engineers.

Visit us at https://www.tmasolutions.com/

Read More

Telemedicine is replacing in-person care amid the pandemic

Not only does it provide care that otherwise would not be accessible to patients in need, but telemedicine is also a safety measure for medical staff to avoid the risk of virus contraction.

Many people with health problems, especially chronic illnesses are going to struggle during the pandemic, provided that we are all following the stay-at-home policies. But the fear of catching COVID-19 and the restriction order should not keep people with serious non-COVID-19 symptoms from seeking medical care. Delaying care for medical emergencies can be life-threatening or prone to other severe complications. 

Telemedicine is replacing in-person care amid the pandemic. (Photo: ScienceSoft)

And this problem can be solved by telemedicine as told by health care executive Kerry Palakanis. "For people with chronic health conditions, we don't want them coming into the traditional health care environment and exposing themselves to COVID," she said.

The executive director for Connected Care at Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City, Palakanis, stressed the benefits of remote medical care to patients with critical conditions that need regular follow-up visits and patients living in remote areas where hospitals are inconvenient to access during this time. 

On the other hand, experts have concerned the challenge of implementing the new digital approach due to the public perception of not having in-person meetings with a doctor.

Source: CNET

About us: TMA Solutions was established in 1997 to provide quality software outsourcing services to leading companies worldwide. We are one of the largest software outsourcing companies in Vietnam with 2,500 engineers.

Visit us at https://www.tmasolutions.com/

Read More