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20.1 AI in Healthcare

AI in healthcare uses machine learning to support diagnosis, predict patient risk, analyze medical images, and speed up drug discovery. Models learn patterns from large datasets such as X-rays, lab results, and electronic health records, then flag findings a clinician should review.

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A computer-vision model detecting suspicious regions in a chest X-ray.

In Ethiopia, where specialist radiologists are scarce outside big cities, an AI screening tool at a health center in Hawassa could pre-read chest X-rays for signs of tuberculosis and prioritize urgent cases for the on-call doctor.

Scenario

Your TB-screening model flags 95% of true cases but also wrongly flags many healthy patients. For a low-resource clinic, what is the most responsible next step?

Check your understanding

1/4 · 40 XP

Which task is a typical use of AI in healthcare?