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. 2025 May 15;20(5):e0322197.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0322197. eCollection 2025.

Investigating the Key Trends in Applying Artificial Intelligence to Health Technologies: A Scoping Review

Tawil Samah  1   2 , Merhi Samar  3
Affiliations

Investigating the Key Trends in Applying Artificial Intelligence to Health Technologies: A Scoping Review

Tawil Samah et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is exponentially rising in the healthcare sector. This change influences various domains of early identification, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases.

Purpose: This study examines the integration of AI in healthcare, focusing on its transformative potential in diagnostics and treatment, and the challenges and methodologies. shaping its future development.

Methods: The review included 68 academic studies retracted from different databases (WOS, Scopus and Pubmed) from January 2020 and April 2024. After careful review and data analysis, AI methodologies, benefits and challenges, were summarized.

Results: The number of studies showed a steady rise from 2020 to 2023. Most of them were the results of a collaborative work with international universities (92.1%). The majority (66.7%) were published in top-tier (Q1) journals and 40% were cited 2-10 times. The results have shown that AI tools such as deep learning methods and machine learning continue to significantly improve accuracy and timely execution of medical processes. Benefits were discussed from both the organizational and the patient perspective in the categories of diagnosis, treatment, consultation and health monitoring of diseases. However, some challenges may exist, despite these benefits, and are related to data integration, errors related to data processing and decision making, and patient safety.

Conclusion: The article examines the present status of AI in medical applications and explores its potential future applications. The findings of this review are useful for healthcare professionals to acquire deeper knowledge on the use of medical AI from design to implementation stage. However, a thorough assessment is essential to gather more insights into whether AI benefits outweigh its risks. Additionally, ethical and privacy issues need careful consideration.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. PRISMA flow diagram of studies selection process.
(Caption: Process of inclusion and exclusion of studies).
Fig 2
Fig 2. Percentage of AI in health studies across the years.
(Caption: Percentages of health studies that apply AI across the years).
Fig 3
Fig 3. Main areas of AI application.
(Caption: percentage of health-related subject that apply AI).
Fig 4
Fig 4. Differences in the average number of citations among different medical fields.
(Caption: Mean citation numbers across different fields of study).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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