Abstract
The potential of the second wave of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to change our lives beyond recognition is both exciting and challenging. AI has been around for over three decades, and this new approach of artificial intelligence, due to enhancements in technology, both software, and hardware, has resulted in the fact that human decision-making is considered inferior and erratic in many fields: none more so than medicine. Machine learning algorithms with access to large data sets can be trained to outperform clinicians in many respects. AI’s effectiveness in accurate diagnosis of various medical conditions and medical image interpretation is well documented. Modern AI technology has the potential to transform medicine to a level never seen before in terms of efficiency and accuracy; but is also potentially highly disruptive, creating insecurity and allowing the transfer of expert domain knowledge to machines. Anesthetics is a complex medical discipline and assuming AI can easily replace experienced and knowledgeable medical practitioners is a very unrealistic expectation. AI can be used in anesthetics to develop, in some respects, more advanced clinical decision support tools based on machine learning. This paper focuses on the complexity of both AI developments, deep learning, neural networks, etc. and opportunities of AI in anesthetics for the future. It will review current advances in AI tools and hardware technologies as well as outlining how these can be used in the field of anesthetics.
Highlights
McGrath et al DOIThe development of this field of medicine has a long history, but essentially the concept has not changed
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used in anesthetics to develop, in some respects, more advanced clinical decision support tools based on machine learning
This paper focuses on the complexity of both AI developments, deep learning, neural networks, etc. and opportunities of AI in anesthetics for the future
Summary
The development of this field of medicine has a long history, but essentially the concept has not changed. Dr William Morton (1846) removed a tumor from the jaw of a patient using ether to render the patient unconscious. Many of these early anesthetics, such as nitrous-oxide and chloroform had significant side effects. Pre-operative and post-operative are critical aspects of patient monitoring. After major surgery monitored patient vitals is critical in the intensive care unit. Medications used to treat chronic painful conditions need to be carefully monitored and most medications have significant side effect profiles. Much of pain medicine treatment is theatre-based interventional techniques which require a specific skill set [2]
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