Medical experts have said that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will now help in provisional diagnosis to save the precious time of the patient and help speed up recovery.

“This will be done by feeding data of previous diagnoses into the computer. The data will be analysed and matched with the condition of the admitted patient. The development in treatment via AI will go ahead gradually but in the next five years it will come as a major support to ICU staff,” said Prof Avinash Agrawal HoD critical care medicine, while speaking at the 7th Foundation Day function of the department of critical care medicine at the King George’s Medical University (KGMU) on 29 Nov.

Experts pointed out that since trained and skilled staff were hard to find for ICU care, the use of AI may help in the management of serious patients.

Dr BK Rao of the critical care department at Sir Gangaram Hospital, New Delhi said that details of the patient are uploaded in the software and the nursing staff make use of the AI-based suggestions.

“Since the majority of the diagnosis of critical patients are done inside the ICU only, hence the AI tool can help a lot in guiding the nursing staff,” he added.

Prof Haider Abbas, HoD emergency medicine at the KGMU, said “Since prolonged ICU stay increases the risk of infections, there are medicines that are administered in a controlled manner. Here AI can help.”

He further said, “AI tool does not work on its own. But based upon patient’s data fed by medical staff, AI delivers the response upon treatment to be adopted immediately.”