10 Ways AI Can Transform Healthcare in Nigeria

When Singapore launched its first ‘Self-driving’ taxi service in August 2016 provided by nuTonomy, I picked a particular interest in Artificial Intelligence otherwise known as AI.

These self-driven cars are programmed with AI to perform automated functions. Using a combination of computer vision, image recognition, and deep learning, the machine builds automated skills for piloting a vehicle while staying in a given lane; avoiding unexpected obstructions such as pedestrians.

From Siri to Self-driven cars, AI technology is making headways. Although sci-fi describes AI as robots with human characteristics, AI encompasses anything from Google Algorithms to IBM Watson to autonomous weapons.

The prospects of AI cannot be over-emphasized, and the healthcare sector is keying into this future changing technology.

As an enthusiast of the ‘best healthcare services for all with a deep interest in health technology, I can say in AI, we have found the solution to the setbacks of healthcare in Nigeria.

New to Artificial Intelligence?

This definition that follows should help.

Artificial Intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems (it is different from cognitive computing).

AI has proven to be a significant breakthrough in machine technology, and as a result of its efficiency, it is incorporated into various types of technology.

With pressing infrastructures in Nigeria’s health sector and the rapid, positive shift towards advancements in health technology, it is essential to look closely at how AI can transform healthcare in Nigeria.

Artificial Intelligence beams positive signs for Nigeria’s healthcare, and the biggest bets are on improving patient outcomes and reducing costs.

Across the world, health tech companies are applying machine learning to make better and faster diagnoses than humans.

IBM Watson is one of the best-known healthcare technologies. It understands natural or human language and can respond to questions asked of it. The system mines patient data and other available data sources to form a hypothesis and then presents this with a confidence scoring schema.

There are other AI applications such as Chatbots, which is a computer program used online to answer user questions and assist customers, to help schedule follow-up appointments or aid patients through the billing process, and virtual health assistants that provide basic medical feedback.

Significant Sprouts of AI in Nigeria and Africa

The possibilities of AI are endless, and the delivery of healthcare services in Nigeria will improve drastically if we adopt the system to our health technology.

The AI space in Nigeria may be fledging for now, but just as it is with every other developing nation, the future definitely holds great promises.

In Nigeria and Africa, the growth of AI is still at a weaning stage due to numerous problems ranging from inadequate infrastructure to cultural and socio-economic barriers to the adoption of these technological advancements.

However, this does not mean the African continent is still in the dark. Over ten years ago in 2008, BrandsEye, a South African company started combining AI and human crowds to accurately rate sentiments and calculate emotions and provide enterprise customers with this data.

In Egypt, Rana El Kalouby and co-founder Rosalind Picard launched the startup Affectiva in 2009; the pioneer of affective-computing technology. The system uses emotion recognition to detect moods and make decisions based on facial expressions.

Since its launch in 2009, Affectiva has analyzed 7,770,195 faces and has raised $34million in venture capital to date.

Here in Nigeria, the AI space is heating up, slowly but definitely.

Data Science Nigeria (DSN) is a frontline Artificial Intelligence capacity building non-profit convened by Bayo Adekanbi, Chief Transformation Officer at MTN Nigeria. They launched Nigeria’s first AI-focused hub at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. DSN has incubated four data science concepts tested for real-world applications.

Moreso, traditional entities like banks have delved into the AI space. Outstanding examples are Diamond Bank and United Bank for Africa (UBA) which launched AI-powered digital assistants ( Ada and Leo) respectively.

Facebook also launched its NG_Hub setup in Lagos in partnership with CcHub.

Apparently, these innovations are all validating the rise of AI in Nigeria and Africa.

Several AI startups have sprung up and are getting positive reviews from users all over the country, check these out; Kudi.ai, Ubenwa, and Touchabl.

Moreover, health is wealth, and the extent to which Africa is healthy would go a long way to determine how fast it leaps into becoming a developed land.

Thus, we need to explore the potential of AI in our health sector.

AI in Nigeria’s Healthcare Sector

According to research by CB Insights, about 86% of healthcare provider organizations, life science companies, and technology vendors to healthcare are using artificial intelligence technology.

By 2020, these organizations are expected to spend an average of $54 million on artificial intelligence projects, as per the CB Insights study.

AI is growing to be sophisticated just like humans; but most importantly, more efficient, faster, and at a lower cost.

All over the world, several solutions are being implemented to improve healthcare.

What follows below are ten common implementations of AI in healthcare, and how they can serve in the Nigerian health sector.

1. Staying Healthy

One of the most significant benefits of AI in healthcare is its role in helping people stay healthy so that they do not need to visit the hospital, at least not too frequently.

Tech applications and apps encourage healthier behaviour within individuals and help people maintain a more healthy lifestyle.

With AI, consumers are now more aware of the need to stay healthy, in turn; they have taken control of their health and well being.

2. Early Detection

Every year, 80,000 lives are lost to cancer in Nigeria with an estimated 102,000 new cases of cancer annually.

AI is already being used in the detection of diseases, such as cancer, for early diagnosis and treatment.

According to the American Cancer Society, results of mammograms mostly yield false results meaning that 1 in 2 healthy individuals are told they have cancer.

With the use of AI to enable reviews, mammograms are translated 30 times faster with 99% accuracy; reducing the unnecessary need for biopsies.

3. Improving Treatment

The potentials of artificial intelligence are beyond measures.

With this unique technology, clinicians can now give a more accurate diagnosis.

The treatment design of AI enables it to analyze data (notes and reports from a patient’s file, external research, and clinical know-how) to select the accurate and best individual treatment path for a patient.

4. Medical Records/Patients Data

The primary function of healthcare institutions is to compile and analyze patient information.

Data management is used in this regard. Robots collect, store, re-format, and trace data to provide faster and easier access.

For a country like Nigeria, this would replace the rigorous and ineffective methods applied in storing our medical records and improve the accessibility and authenticity of patient data.

5. Aging Care

Since time immemorial, keeping the elderly ones in a home and in the care of strangers has been regarded as a serious ‘taboo’ in almost every part of the world.

Here in Nigeria, these homes barely exist and there are no government policies in place for the care of the ageing.

There are barely 15 commendable Elderly homes in Nigeria, and these homes do not have adequate infrastructure.

People are growing old every day, and old age is a phase in life, plagued with loneliness. Therefore, the need to make ageing less depressing and stressful for both the old and the caregiver is becoming even more critical now than ever.

Robots possess the potential to transform end of life care, helping the ageing to live independently for much longer and reducing the need for special care in the home or hospitalization.

To this end, AI combines with humanoid designs to enable robots to interact more human-like with people and have social interactions. This helps to keep ageing minds sharp.

6. Pharmaceuticals

It takes years to produce a drug and an even longer time for the drug to go through clinical testing and be approved for human treatment. Many drugs never make it out of the labs, and some don’t pass the clinical trials.

This costs a lot of money for the Pharm companies, but with the advancements in AI and its recent application in drug research and discovery, the latest advances in AI are directed at simplifying the drug discovery and drug repurposing processes.

This would definitely cut down on the market cost and time frame consumed in the production of new drugs.

7. Health Monitoring

There are so many wearable health trackers, the likes of FitBit, Garmin, Xiaomi, Apple and more, which monitor heart rates and activity levels.

These systems can send notifications to the user to perform more exercise; also, they can share this information with healthcare providers (and AI systems) adding more data about the habits and needs of the patient.

8. Managing Medications

One major challenge faced by healthcare providers in Nigeria is the sad habit of self-medication and drug abuse by individuals. This can be controlled with the application of artificial intelligence.

The MedHelper app is a medication-compliance and tracking app that monitors the user’s adherence to medication and also performs the duty of a health assistant.

9. Digital Consultation

Apps like Ada developed in Berlin, use AI to give medical consultations based on patient data and common medical knowledge. Ada asks the users simple, relevant questions and compares their answers to thousands of similar cases to help them find possible explanations for their symptoms.

The sophisticated artificial intelligence technology also supports clinical decision making.

10. Virtual Nurses

A major fear of the application of AI in healthcare is that it would replace humans. This is not the case, AI technology aims at enhancing medical care and improving the efficiency of healthcare providers.

In 2014, Jason Hendeles and Wolf Shlagman founded CareAngel; a company behind the first-ever Virtual Health Assistant- Angel, that conversationally interacts with patients starting with a simple phone call.

With Virtual Nurses, the care of patients with chronic or acute diseases is now better and more efficient.

The applications of AI in healthcare are endless and would continue to emerge as the adoption of the technology increases.

Thanks for reading,

Have you had any experience with AI yet? I’d love to know in the comments below.

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.