open-source / healthcare / AI

The AI Healthcare Future We Need

Nov.2023

The AI Healthcare Future We Need

Melanoma AI Healthcare Assistant

Ankle Pain AI Healthcare Assistant

Artificial intelligence (AI) has undergone tremendous advancements since its conception in the 1950s:

AI Image Generation: One of the most notable developments in recent years is the accessibility and widespread engagement of AI trained on images. This includes tools like pix2pix from 2014 and more recent advancements like DALL·E, released in January 2021, as well as MidJourney and Stable Diffusion, both released in the summer of 2022. These tools have since fueled the mainstream adoption of app features like Lensa's "Magic Avatar" that generate fine-art-like portraits, avatars, and more.

AI Text Generation: In addition to image generation, conversational AI has also gained mainstream attention. Originally developed decades ago, recurrent neural networks (RNNs) have been used for text generation. While RNNs can be trained on data sets likeShakespeare's writingand generate text to match, ChatGPT can answer nearly any question imaginable in nearly any style. Released for free in November 2022, ChatGPT gained more thanone million userswithin its first week. It has reached a mainstream audience in a way that feels distinct, as people of all ages and backgrounds continue to find different applications for the tool. Students are using it to write school papers, and doctors are checking ChatGPT's answers as they respond to patient questions; others are exploring ChatGPT's ability to generate workout plans, rewrite emails to be more persuasive, craft poems, and more. In fact, ChatGPT was given a set of bullet points and produced the first draft of this article introduction!

With all of these new advancements, AI capabilities straight out of sci-fi movies like Fantastic Planet, Moon, and Her seem closer than ever.

How will this impact health? Howshouldit impact health?

Here are our studio's thoughts on the matter.

Expectations for the Future

The following are gaps we've identified in existing technology that we would expect from an ideal patient tool:

Patient Tool Concepts

AdHoc Health Guide

Mental Health SupportStoryboard with images generated by MidJourney

Jay gets home from school. AiHealth believes they may be feeling depressed based on their health data:

AiHealth sends Jay a photo they took with their family on a hike 3 months ago. Reminding Jay of happy memories often cheers them up.

However, Jay doesn't respond to the images. They end up skipping dinner and staying in bed until the next morning.

AiHealth sends a text message: "Hey are you ok? I'm here for you if you want to chat."

Jay is hungry, tired, and stressed. They reply, "no... idk."

AiHealth: "I can see the stress coming through in your health data. That must be difficult."

AiHealth: "Why don't we do something to make your body feel a little better?"

Jay: "ok"

AiHealth knows Jay likes images and animations, so it creates a little sparkling glass of water with a written reminder: "Drink some water and have a snack! Your body will feel a little better right away."

AiHealth: "How do you feel now?"

Jay: "A little better maybe... it's good to get up"

AiHealth: "Well if that helped, here are some other things we can do to help your body feel better..."

AiHealth walks Jay through washing their face, brushing their teeth, putting on a fresh change of clothes, and finally going outside to get some fresh air.

Jay starts texting AiHealth about what's been bothering them: tension between friends groups at school, a big misunderstanding, and just feeling really down for a while.

AiHealth listens, asks good questions, and makes space for this.

This image is a screenshot from ChatGPT

At the end AiHealth asks if they'd like any help or suggestions to feel better.

What purposes could an AI patient tool serve?

Here's how we imagine it:

The AI Healthcare Future We Need