Precision Medicine, AI, and the Future of Personalized Health Care

Abstract

The convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and precision medicine promises to revolutionize health care. Precision medicine methods identify phenotypes of patients with less-common responses to treatment or unique healthcare needs. AI leverages sophisticated computation and inference to generate insights, enables the system to reason and learn, and empowers clinician decision making through augmented intelligence. Recent literature suggests that translational research exploring this convergence will help solve the most difficult challenges facing precision medicine, especially those in which nongenomic and genomic determinants, combined with information from patient symptoms, clinical history, and lifestyles, will facilitate personalized diagnosis and prognostication.

Figure 1

A version of the Friedman’s fundamental theorem of informatics describing the impact of augmented intelligence. “The healthcare system with AI will be better than the healthcare system without it.” AI, artificial intelligence.

Figure 2

Dimensions of synergy between AI and precision medicine. Both precision medicine and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques impact the goal of personalizing care in five ways: therapy planning using clincal, genomic or social and behavioral determinants of health, and risk prediction/diagnosis, using genomic or other variables.