How AI and IoT Can Improve Cancer Treatment

The Internet of Things (IoT) has the power to make our lives easier. Healthcare is one industry in which IoT could affect positive change. There’s plenty of buzz about how IoT could help boost the efficiency of healthcare. It could reduce emergency room wait times and tracking patient and inventory data. There is also hope that artificial intelligence (AI) could someday assist doctors with cancer research, detection, and care. I argue that together AI and IoT can improve cancer treatment. Opportunities in Diagnosis and Treatment As machines and devices grow better at communicating with each other, AI technology like IBM’s Watson, as well as robotic surgeons, are helping doctors treat cancer from diagnosis to care. For now, however, AI and IoT don’t work together in the cancer treatment space. In general, the earlier a doctor can recognize symptoms, the more quickly they can reach a diagnosis and begin treatment. A variety of early-stage cancer symptoms are vague and unrecognizable, so it’s understandable that cancers may initially go undiagnosed. Therein lies the point: AI and IoT can improve cancer treatment, but they should work together. IoT systems that work in tandem with AI platforms will be capable of deciphering cancer risk markers and acting upon them. They’ll be able to do so for less serious conditions and in more ambiguous diagnostic environments. Such an advanced fusion of technologies will be especially useful when it comes to rare diseases and those with poor life expectancy in later stages.