Revolutionizing Healthcare with Artificial Neural Networks

Healthcare organizations make use of many new technologies to deliver improved care at a lower cost – one such technology is Artificial Neural Networks. ANNs can used for many purposes, and in healthcare, their use manifest in many forms. For example, they can be used to find co-relations between a disease and prior conditions of a patient. ANNs are already being used to make informed decisions between patients and healthcare providers. Some have even made their way to being deployed for intra-organizational, or even inter- organizational level decision making. As of now, clinical specialists have access to a myriad of data ranging from detailed descriptions of clinical symptoms to various biochemical data and imaging device results. All this data needs to be analyzed to form a particular diagnosis. ANNs present a great opportunity to simplify the routine diagnostic process, and even in prevention of false diagnoses. This article aims to briefly review and discuss the philosophy, workings, capabilities, and limitations of Artificial Neural Networks in medicine, with selected examples.