Blog | Better Together. Better World.

AWS announces Minfy as Amazon Healthlake Partner. Better Together. Better World.

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Technology has revolutionized the Healthcare and Life Sciences industry. This has led to unprecedented ways in which the quality of human life has been enhanced: whether it be through early detection of diseases, steadfast treatments, rapid drug discoveries, or genome studies; many short-term and chronic diseases have found their magical potion aka cure.

Minfy has a history of expertise in the Healthcare and Life Sciences industries and continues to work with our customers to unlock various novel insights, find patterns from a plethora of human body parameters, and identify abnormalities from medical images. Drawing insights from such complex data can radically transform the preventive healthcare industry.  The need of the hour is a place where all this structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data can be organized, analyzed, managed, and used for feeding the machine learning models for predictions.

This is where Amazon HealthLake comes in, and Minfy is excited to announce that it has been selected as an Amazon HealthLake Launch Partner for the Amazon HealthLake Partner Program. This service allows healthcare providers, health insurance companies, and pharmaceutical companies to store, transform, query, analyze, and share health data in the cloud. Amazon HealthLake offers various features for storing, transforming, searching, and analyzing data, saving both time and energy while providing smooth efficiency and high accuracy.

Some of the vital features of Amazon HealthLake and its potential benefits for the Healthcare industry are mentioned below.

Secure and compliant data storage:

Amazon HealthLake supports data in the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR R4) industry standard. With the use of HealthLake import API, importing files from S3 storage to the HealthLake datastore including lab reports, clinical notes, and insurance claims, is quick and easy. Amazon HealthLake’s data store creates a complete view of each patient’s medical history in chronological order and helps index all information to easily search without any hassle.

Amazon HealthLake is a HIPAA eligible service that allows for encryption with customer-managed keys. Customers can rest assured knowing that private health information (PHI) can be encrypted at the datastore level. You can control user access based on user needs with column level security to power AI/ML analytics.

Meaningful data transformation:

Integrated medical natural language processing (NLP) transforms all raw medical text data in the datastore to discern and extract meaningful information from unstructured healthcare data. Integrated medical NLP, which Amazon HealthLake leverages via Comprehend Medical, can automatically extract entities (e.g., medical procedures, medications), entity relationships (e.g., a medication and its dosage), entity traits (e.g., positive or negative test result, time of procedure), and Protected Health Information (PHI) data from medical text.

This transformed data is comparatively more mature and readier to be used to capture a patient’s medical history. What previously took hours or even days to capture and analyze can be done within minutes.

Better decision support by better search capabilities:

Amazon HealthLake supports FHIR Search and CRUD operations. In other words, the users can create, read, update, and delete pieces of information for more comprehensive and rich datasets. Even the electronic health/medical records (EHR or EMR) can be indexed into Amazon Kendra for an accurate representation of the medical history of the patient by ranking the content using Amazon Neptune knowledge graphs. With this semantic search, the query will fetch data that have context, unlike any other lexical search.

As the search results improve, the efficiency of comparisons between medical records and notes increases. When the medical records are well organized, then the shared clinical characteristics with the use of Neptune allow users to view metadata associated with patient notes in a simpler and standard view. This early intervention and efficiency of healthcare providers give more time to consult with patients better and allows a comprehensive check with a proper prescription to sustain a healthy life and hence move towards preventive care.

Detailed analysis and more promising predictions:

It is worth noting that Amazon HealthLake can seamlessly leverage Amazon SageMaker to build machine learning or deep learning models that can solve healthcare and life sciences challenges by interpreting the results via visualization techniques. Amazon HealthLake also connects to Amazon QuickSight to create dashboards by exporting and normalizing data to quickly explore patient trends. This can help find better insights, patterns, and anomalies in the health data. This will further enable regular interventions by healthcare providers to prevent a particular disease in its early stages itself.

Amazon HealthLake’s streamlining of data analytics and AI/ML model capability accelerate data insights for healthcare industry stakeholders. Several AWS cloud services can be used in conjunction with Amazon HealthLake, including Amazon Sagemaker to train the ML/DL models, Amazon QuickSight for visualization, Amazon Polly for telehealth, Amazon Kendra to search using natural language, and last but not least Amazon Rekognition to understand the medical images better, and these services can all be integrated to make the complete healthcare system exponentially efficient. Minfy is ready to leverage these services to deliver results to our customers and solve Healthcare and Life Sciences’ most challenging problems.

5 AI Solutions Transforming Healthcare in 2022 and beyond

The world's life expectancy has increased as a result of various advancements in healthcare facilities. However, as the world's population ages, healthcare systems must contend with a rise in demand for their services, growing costs, and a staff that is under pressure to meet patient needs.

With the growing population of senior citizens and the adverse effects of climate change, there will be a huge rise in health-related issues. It will lead to a higher influx of patients with various needs to several healthcare institutions. To tackle this meteorically rising need and the economy behind it, healthcare systems need to transform their service deliveries from episodic to management-focused long-term care.

But how can healthcare systems achieve it effectively?

This is where healthcare AI solutions come into play. Artificial intelligence (AI) solutions have the potential to handle these challenges and empower the healthcare industry to be future-ready.  By introducing new innovative ways of tackling operational challenges, AI solutions are and will be transforming the healthcare industry in 2022 and beyond.

However, before moving on to discuss various AI solutions in healthcare, let's first understand how AI solutions sync with the definition of healthcare systems

What are AI Solutions in Healthcare?

It is quite known that artificial intelligence (AI) is the capacity of computers and other machines to think, learn, and behave very similarly to humans. The employment of cognitive approaches like AI algorithms in medical situations is referred to as artificial intelligence (AI) solutions in healthcare. Very often to predict certain medical outcomes, AI solutions in healthcare are used to build quick response and effective analysis platforms against huge chunks of medical data.

Industry Application of AI Solutions in Healthcare

The healthcare industry is already using AI solutions for better clinical decisions and faster operations. In healthcare and life-science companies, AI solutions offer several advantages over traditional analytical methods. AI solutions can make healthcare systems more precise with the ability to understand training data, which further helps humans get unprecedented insights into treatment variability, care processes, diagnostics, and patient results.

Over the last few years, AI solutions have significantly contributed to the healthcare industry. From providing better service to patients to performing advanced analysis and treatment AI solutions are fueling healthcare institutions to achieve better growth and revenue. Now, let’s take a closer look at 5 healthcare AI solutions that are transforming the healthcare industry as a whole.

 1. AI & Machine Learning (ML) Solutions for Medical Imaging & Diagnosis

"Medical imaging" refers to a variety of methods that are used to examine the human body to discover, monitor, or treat several disorders. Leveraging AI solutions, medical imaging and diagnosis can be done with better precision and accuracy. Unlike humans, AI solutions can help in better recognition of intricate patterns of various human body ailments. Few real-world applications of this can be:

  • The algorithms at the core of the AI solutions can expedite the process of reading complex images from CT scans or MRIs.
  • AI solutions-based Machine Learning (ML) platforms in healthcare are helping to analyze MRI a shorter timeframe right from the symptom onset. It finally helps in detecting many life-threatening diseases at an early stage. For example, a brain MRI analysis with AI solutions based Machine Learning (ML) platforms helps identify tissue changes reflective of early ischemic stroke.
  • Doctors can perform better and more accurate disease diagnoses with the help of automated image diagnosis systems.

Using these AI solutions in your healthcare institutions, you can directly boost healthcare expert’s productivity. Additionally, using these AI solutions in healthcare, you can ensure that your highly skilled staff spends time treating more patients rather than evaluating medical pictures.

2.     AI Solutions for Next-Gen Patient Screening

AI can be helpful in pre-screening patients long before they arrive at a hospital.

  • Instead of sticking to conventional pre-screening questionnaires, healthcare institutions need to enable AI solutions-based speech and text-based interactions. It will lead to faster screening and better management of a higher volume of patients.
  • Reinforcing ML with AI solutions will further help to identify novel trends and enhance patient complaint diagnosis. In comparison to a preset or static survey, AI solutions like chat-bots can easily replicate the expertise of a real-world healthcare practitioner.
  • Adopting AI solutions-based Natural language processing (NLP) applications allows your potential patient to speak or write to a doctor about their symptoms. The AI agent and patients will quiz one another to mimic a conversation between a doctor and a patient.
  • AI solutions can provide virtual health assistance to help advise a patient on how to proceed with their medical care. It includes timely reminders about check-ups, whether to visit the emergency room, schedule a consultation, or take an over-the-counter medication. If the patient needs medical attention, the AI solution can recommend a doctor based on the patient's location, availability, and insurance information.

In cases of health emergencies or growing accessibility issues in urban areas, AI solutions in healthcare can be a revolutionary innovation.

3.      Predictive AI Solutions for Preventative Healthcare

Preventative care, as the name itself suggests, is any procedure or method that defends against any probable health issues. Today, the term "preventive care" solely refers to regular medical checks, immunizations, dental cleanings, etc. Leveraging predictive technology of AI solutions can significantly enhance ongoing preventative treatments and boost overall healthcare infrastructure.

  • Smart wearables like the Apple Watch, Fitbit, Garmin, etc. work on the basis of AI solutions coupled with sensors. These smart fitness wearables can support preventative care in the healthcare sector.
  • Information on heart rate, activity, nutrition, VO2, and sleep is automatically supported by these devices. With add-ons, these devices can now measure blood pressure, blood sugar, and weight as well.
  • Preventative healthcare is possible by using the data from these wearables to identify potential health issues even before they occur. This information can be used to build analytical models that will help in making accurate predictions regarding certain illnesses.
  • These models are able to gather data from wearable sensors in real-time, alerting users when they have reached a threshold calling for preventative medical care.

The gadget-based healthcare AI solutions help share data with the physician for a detailed medical understanding. Additionally, it can help offer better care by spending less time on the patient's symptoms and background.

4.     AI Solutions for Healthcare Data Management

The healthcare industry has to deal with a huge pile of data. This increases the chances of straying imperative data. Big medical data comes with bigger data management challenges. It can take years to process this data, connect significant data points, develop an appropriate diagnosis, or support new medicines’ discovery out of this huge data.

  • Data is an asset to every business, and hence, it should be of top priority to preserve it. AI is helping many healthcare organizations to realize important data points from health records’, analyze  and then present it for easier examination and maintenance of patient records.
  • AI solutions when deployed in healthcare, can lead to easier data processing and bring quick visibility into patterns, which can be very daunting for any individual.

5.     AI Solutions for advanced Healthcare Drug Discovery

COVID-19 has shed light on the creation of vaccines and technologies like AI, ML, or DL have proved to be of greater help in expediting the vaccine discovery process. It has taken a year and more for the world to discover the vaccine. It has only shown that the processes for identifying vaccines and pharmaceuticals are labor-intensive, expensive, time-consuming, and usually unsuccessful.

  • Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly using AI tools like DL to develop and test new drugs.
  • It needs a lot of data analysis to develop new pharmaceuticals since there are so many possible chemical combinations. AI solutions being exceptionally faster and quicker at handling enormous data volumes can accelerate the entire process.
  • AI solutions can help create more medicines that are authorized in less time and at cheaper costs.

AI solutions can help bolster clinical efforts toward faster drug discovery. This will lead to faster market release and subsequent cost & time savings.

Summary

  • AI solutions in the healthcare sector can help every healthcare worker to view patient data and other information to provide accurate diagnoses and treatment suggestions.
  • AI solutions let healthcare institutions gather huge data sets like clinical trial data, claims data, demographic data, etc. Deploying AI solutions can lead to faster data processing which will probably take years if done through the conventional methodology.
  • Using Ai solutions in the healthcare sector can lead to the discovery of necessary data patterns and insights, thus, potential for further scalability.

The above, plus various other benefits of AI solutions, have made it a turning point in the healthcare field. Whether in the form of machine learning that aids in the development of  medicine, patient prescreening, in-treatment communications through NLP or AI solutions like imaging analysis, AI solutions are already outgrowing the conventional methods and are bound to grow more in coming years. Explore how our AI solutions are modernizing our clients’ healthcare operations and helping them achieve big in their business. Do you want to know how AI solutions can benefit your healthcare company? Contact us today to learn more.

Book a 1-hour free consultation with pricing details.

Blog | Growth Champion 2023 by Economic Times and Statista

Minfy is amongst India's Fastest Growing Companies as per a study by The Economic Times and Statista and is listed amongst India's Growth Champions 2022.

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Minfy declared a Growth Champion 2023 by Economic Times and Statista!

Minfy is amongst India's Fastest Growing Companies (32nd) as per a study run by The Economic Times and Statista and is listed amongst India's Growth Champions 2023.

Economic Times and Statista pick and rank a select group of businesses that have perfected the art of gaining ground year after year. Aside from growth, key considerations are that businesses have real economic substance, sustainability, and legitimacy.

 

 

Thank you The Economic Times and Statista.

#Indiagrowthchampion2023 #betterfocusbettergrowth #bionicforabetterworld #economictimes

Click here to see the detailed rankings.
https://lnkd.in/gvGq9_5q

Blog | AI-ML in Demand Forecasting

AI-ML use cases in Demand Forecasting

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Demand forecasting is a common use case of AI-ML. It can be used to identify areas of improvement and best practices that can help businesses improve its forecasting accuracy. It helps in production planning and determine incremental impacts of new initiatives, plan resources in response to expected demand, and project future budgets.

The following image depicts a simple forecasting cycle. It is all about using historical data, train forecasting model on it, generate forecast to make informed decisions. It’s a cyclic process — when new data arrives, we feed it back into the forecasting model and retrain it so that the model remains up to date.

Demand forecasting cycle

A frequent question we get from customers, consultants and other business experts is “What would you consider a good level of forecast accuracy?”

However, it may not be the most relevant question to raise, though. First of all, forecasting is seldom the objective in any retail or supply chain planning scenario. It is always a means to an end. A forecast is only useful if it helps us accomplish other objectives, like increased shelf availability, accurate production planning, less wastage.

While forecasting is a crucial component of all planning activities, it is only one cog in the machine, which means that other factors like changes in consumer behaviour, economic turndowns, historical data quality can have a significant impact on the forecasting accuracy.

What degree of forecast accuracy can actually be obtained depends on a number of factors. This is one of the reasons why comparing forecast accuracy between businesses, or even between products within the same business, is so challenging.

When integrating demand forecasting systems, it’s essential to understand that they are vulnerable to unpredictable situations. So, the demand forecasting machine learning models should be re-trained according to current reality.

With large forecast horizon, the probability that future demand will be impacted by developments that we are not currently aware of grows noticeably. Weather-dependent demand is a straightforward illustration. If we need to make decisions on what quantities of summer clothes to buy or produce half a year even longer in advance, there is currently no way of knowing what the weather in the summer is going to be.

On the other hand, if we were in charge of overseeing the replenishment of ice cream in grocery shops, we could utilize short-term weather forecast to estimate how much ice cream to transport to each location.

 

Important features to consider while training ML model for forecasting:

 

 Seasonality

Seasonality refers to the regular and predictable pattern of demand for goods or services that occurs at certain times of the year, such as holidays, weather changes, or cultural events. What’s more, understanding of seasonality for each of your products can give you a head start in demand planning. With a good grasp of how much consumer demand varies, you can select the right demand forecasting models, focus on making plan adjustments and spot true outliers that require further attention.

For example, a business that sells winter clothing may experience a significant increase in demand during the winter months and a decrease in demand during the summer months. Similarly, a business that sells ice cream may experience higher demand during the summer months and lower demand during the winter months.

Weather data feature effect

Demand will typically vary from region to region, depending on local calendars and weather. You may need to segment your data geographically to identify seasonality patterns. At the same time, aggregating forecasts to a less granular level — product category instead of product, for example — may make it easier to distinguish seasonal patterns from random noise.

Rather than including only historical time series and demand, incorporate weather data into a machine learning model for demand forecasting as the model can account for the impact of weather on consumer behaviour and give better predictions accordingly. This can lead to help businesses make better decisions about inventory management, marketing strategies, and other aspects of their operations.

Furthermore, weather data can be used to create more granular and accurate models by breaking down the weather into different variables such as temperature, precipitation, humidity, etc. This allows for a more nuanced analysis of how weather affects demand for different products or services.

The following code snippet reads weather data from a csv file and pre-processes it by resampling to daily frequency and imputes the missing values by linear interpolation imputation technique, so that it can used with the historical time-series data to train a forecasting ML model.

Code snippet to pre-process weather feature

Location

For certain use cases, location is an important feature when training a demand forecasting ML model.

Competition & Vendors: The location of a business and its associated vendors location where a particular product is being sold can play a vital role. Also, if there are many similar businesses in the area, the demand for a particular product or service may be lower than in an area with few or no competitors.

Demographics: The demographics of an area may play a crucial role in determining the demand for a product or service. Different age groups, income levels, and cultural backgrounds have different preferences, and this can be reflected in demand patterns.

Infrastructure: The availability and quality of infrastructure such as roads, transportation, and logistics can also affect demand. Areas with poor infrastructure may have lower demand due to difficulties in accessing or transporting products.

Holidays

Sales patterns can vary significantly during holiday seasons due to changes in consumer behaviour, such as increased shopping activities, changes in preferences, and higher demands for specific products or services.

Including holiday data into the machine learning model helps to improve the accuracy of sales forecasts during these periods, which is essential for businesses to plan their operations and inventory management. Additionally, taking holidays into account in the model can also reveal important insights into customer behaviour and preferences, which can help businesses tailor their marketing strategies to better engage with their target audience.

Trends

One of the benefits of including trends in demand forecasting algorithms is the ability to anticipate market changes and respond accordingly. For example, if a trend analysis indicates a shift in consumer preference for a particular product, the company can adjust their production and marketing strategies to meet the new demand. Additionally, trend features can help identify whether changes in demand are due to short-term fluctuations or long-term changes in the market.

Moreover, trends can also help identify potential bottlenecks in the supply chain, which can help companies optimize their inventory levels and reduce waste. By accurately forecasting future demand, companies can avoid stock outs or overstocking, which can lead to significant losses.

Let’s say you have a dataset that contains daily temperature readings for a specific location over a period of four years. You want to include a feature that represents the trend in temperature over time. One way to do this is to calculate a moving average of the temperature readings for each day, using a window size of, say, 30 days. This will give you a new feature that represents the average temperature over the past 30 days, which can be a good indicator of whether the temperature is trending up or down.

Code snippet to pre-process Temperature trend feature

 

Above code snippet, reads the ‘temperature_data.csv’ file which contains a column called ‘temperature’ that has the daily temperature readings. The rolling () function is used to calculate a rolling average of the temperature column with a window size of 30. The resulting rolling average is then added as a new column to the data frame, with the name ‘temp_trend’.

Machine learning models/tools that can be used for demand forecasting

• Amazon Forecast: Amazon Forecast is a time-series forecasting service based on machine learning (ML) and built for business metrics analysis. Amazon Forecast uses machine learning (ML) to generate forecasts with just a few clicks, without requiring any prior ML experience. If you have a time-series forecasting use case and you don’t have much experience in machine learning, Amazon Forecast is likely a good choice.

• Amazon SageMaker:It is a fully managed machine learning service. With SageMaker, data scientists and developers can quickly and easily train and test machine learning models, and then directly deploy them into a production-ready hosted environment. If you require more flexibility and control over your machine learning models, add and create features, built relationship between the features then Amazon SageMaker can be a better fit.

• Amazon Deep AR: The Amazon SageMaker Deep AR forecasting algorithm is a supervised learning algorithm for forecasting scalar (one-dimensional) time series using recurrent neural networks (RNN).

• ARIMA: An autoregressive integrated moving average model is a form of regression analysis that gauges the strength of one dependent variable relative to other changing variables. The model’s goal is to predict future data points by examining the differences between values in the series instead of through actual values.

• SARIMA: Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average, SARIMA or Seasonal ARIMA, is an extension of ARIMA that explicitly supports univariate time series data with a seasonal component. It adds three new hyperparameters to specify the autoregression (AR), differencing (I) and moving average (MA) for the seasonal component of the series.

• LSTM’s: Long Short — Term Memory is a type of neural network architecture that is commonly used for time series forecasting. LSTM networks are particularly useful for dealing with time series data that have long-term dependencies or complex patterns. The basic idea behind LSTM is to use a series of memory cells to remember and store important information about the input sequence, and then use this information to make predictions about future values in the sequence.

Conclusion

Demand forecasting is a crucial aspect for any business operation, and the use of machine learning algorithms can significantly improve the accuracy and efficiency of the forecasting process. By considering historical data, current trends, and other relevant factors, businesses can better understand their customers’ needs and optimize their production and inventory levels to meet demand while minimizing the loss.

You should ensure that the process of re-training your ML model with new data happens at continuous intervals. The goal of model retraining is to adapt the model to changing patterns in the data, or to improve its accuracy as new data becomes available.

Retraining a model is important because machine learning models are only as good as the data they are trained on. It can also help to address issues such as model drift, where the performance of a model deteriorates over time due to changes in the data distribution.

In conclusion, demand forecasting using machine learning is not a one-time process, but a continuous effort that requires ongoing monitoring and retraining of models on latest available data. By leveraging the latest technologies and insights, companies can stay ahead of the curve and thrive in today’s dynamic and rapidly evolving marketplace.

 - Author Yasir Ul Hadi

References:

 

  1. https://towardsdatascience.com/sales-forecasting-from-time-series-to-deep-learning-5d115514bfac
  2. https://www.relexsolutions.com/resources/machine-learning-in-retail-demand-forecasting/
  3. https://www.relexsolutions.com/resources/measuring-forecast-accuracy/
  4. https://alloy.ai/choosing-the-right-demand-forecasting-model/
  5. https://mobidev.biz/blog/machine-learning-methods-demand-forecasting-retail

 

 

Blog | AI in Energy & Resource Industry

Revolutionizing the Energy and Resources Industry: How AI is Reshaping the Future of Sustainability.

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Revolutionizing the Energy and Resources Industry: How AI is Reshaping the Future of Sustainability.

The energy sector has never been sceptical in adopting new technologies in the past. Be it digitization of the power generating infrastructure, exploring renewable sources of energy or innovating the aged infrastructure of transmission and distribution, it has always embraced these challenges and adopted well.  However, challenges such as high carbon emissions, inefficient energy management, aging infrastructure, etc still needs to be addressed to build a more sustainable future. These challenges can be dealt with innovation and collaboration amongst stakeholders from different domains.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform the energy sector as it can address a wide range of problems that the sector is currently facing. The industry has already started to embrace the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to drive efficiency, reduce costs, and minimize carbon emissions.

According to Precedence Research, the global artificial intelligence (AI) in renewable energy market size is projected to surpass US$ 75.82 billion by 2030 and is expanding at a CAGR of 27.9% from 2021 to 2030.

In this article, we will explore some of the ways in which AI can help address the challenges that the energy sector is facing. Overcoming these challenges can create a more sustainable future for all. But before that, let's have a quick look at some of the key challenges in the energy sector.

1. Centralized power generation – majority of the global grid network relies on a few power generators making the entire infrastructure highly centralized. Though we have done a great job building such a great infrastructure, large, centralized networks have their own challenges. Some of these are high loss of energy from generation to distribution, high carbon emissions as most of these power plants are based out of non-renewable sources of energy, low power conversion rate, etc.

2. Challenges while transitioning to renewable sources – as the share of renewable sources of energy increases at a fast pace, integrating it with the existing grid system without destabilizing the grid, is quite challenging. Not only that, maintaining balance of demand and supply gets even more challenging as outputs of renewable sources of energy depends on external factors such as weather.

3. Energy Loss and theft: Improving energy efficiency is a key challenge for the energy sector. There is a need to reduce energy waste and increase the use of renewable energy sources to meet the growing demand. Theft and unethical usage of power is again a key concern causing losses to the power suppliers.

4. Ageing infrastructure: Much of the energy sector's infrastructure, such as power grids, equipment and pipelines, is ageing and in need of upgrades. This can be costly and can also create reliability issues.

Now, let’s see how AI can be leveraged to address these challenges in the energy sector.

Renewable energy forecasting: As the share of renewable energy is increasing at a fast pace, integrating it with the existing network is challenging. One of the key reasons is the fact that the production of energy from these sources is not consistent (solar and wind power plants, their power output depends upon external weather factors). Because of this, often the forecasts are inaccurate leading to either blackouts or wastage of surplus energy. Hence, accurately forecasting the output of wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources is essential for managing energy supply and demand. AI algorithms can be used to analyse historical data and real-time weather patterns to predict renewable energy output with greater accuracy, allowing grid operators to balance supply and demand more effectively.

Demand forecasting: AI algorithms can be used to forecast energy demand in real-time, helping grid operators to manage supply more efficiently and prevent blackouts. This can help balance supply and demand, reduce the need for backup power, and improve the overall reliability of the energy grid. This also helps in accurately planning purchase of power for different durations like intraday, short term, and long term. Other than demand forecasting, price forecasting is another important use case that helps in creating more informed power purchase agreements.

Let's have a look at the high-level architecture for demand forecasting using AWS services. With the help of AWS services like Forecast, Quicksight, Sagemaker, etc we can quickly build and deploy AI solutions at scale. Also, to make things easy, let’s assume that we are trying to forecast power demand for a utility.

The architecture consists of four broad functional components —

Data Preparation – First step is to prepare the demand data or the target time series, along with this we may add related time series data such as weather data, income data, and other metadata. Once this data is prepared for training, the data is uploaded to a S3 bucket from where it is used for machine learning and data visualisation tasks.

Model Training – Once the data pre-processing is done, use AWS Forecast to create a predictor or train a custom ML model using a Jupyter notebook with SageMaker. Once the model is trained, endpoint configuration is set and the endpoint is deployed to generate forecast. Amazon CloudWatch is used to monitor the model training and its metrics and Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service) is used to send or receive notifications for training related events.

Forecasting/Inferencing – we can write a simple Lambda function that is triggered by S3 event notification. Whenever new data is uploaded to that S3 bucket, the Lambda function will be triggered to generate a forecast through AWS Step Function workflow which is a service to orchestrate tasks. All we need to do is upload data to the S3 bucket.

Data Visualization – Once a forecast is generated, the results and related metrics are then saved to the s3 bucket and Amazon Athena is used to query this data. After querying the results, Amazon Quicksight is used to visualize forecast results.

Predictive maintenance: Failure of electrical equipment leads to all sorts of undesirable conditions. These failures can lead to electrical safety hazards, unplanned downtime, increased maintenance costs, decreased equipment reliability and life span. Old predictive maintenance techniques were reliable in past but are now outdated. With reduced costs of sensors in the industry, AI solutions such as predictive maintenance can replace these old solutions and can transform entire system’s efficiency.

Predictive maintenance uses machine learning algorithms to predict when equipment is likely to fail, based on historical data and real-time sensor readings. By identifying potential issues before they occur, maintenance teams can schedule repairs during periods of low demand, reducing downtime and costs. Also, equipment running under healthy and efficient conditions will have longer lifespan, and reduced running costs.

Energy optimization: AWS’ collaboration with Carbon Lighthouse to reduce carbon emissions by optimizing energy usage with the help of Artificial Intelligence is a good example of energy optimization. AI solutions can be deployed to identify unoptimized scenarios and make them more efficient. Energy optimization involves using AI algorithms to optimize energy consumption across various processes, such as heating, cooling, and lighting. These algorithms learn the underlaying pattern and works to reduce power consumption by the overall process. This leads to reduced energy waste, improved efficiency, and lower costs.

Fraud Detection: Electricity theft and fraud is not a new challenge, it has been there for a long time and fraudsters keep innovating newer methods of unaccounted power consumption. However, with the help of new technology such as AI, more robust anti-theft systems can be built to help minimize such events. AI can be used to detect fraudulent activity in the energy sector, such as meter tampering or theft of service. By analysing usage patterns and other data, AI can identify suspicious behaviour and alert utilities to potential problems, helping to reduce losses and improve overall revenue.

Power Management – Wastage of power due to unoptimized solutions or human ignorance is a key concern when it comes to power management. When AI is integrated with sensors (IoT), we get a complete power management toolkit that can be installed anywhere from residential houses to commercial buildings. These AI powered smart solutions can help companies to cut down their utility bills by a significant amount. Till we have “arc-reactors” powering our buildings like Tony Stark’s NYC lab, we need an AI to at least manage the power of our buildings.

The energy sector is facing significant challenges in the modern world, including high centralization, transitioning to renewables, energy losses and thefts, and ageing infrastructure. To overcome these challenges, the industry must embrace innovation and collaborate with stakeholders to create sustainable solutions. AI is one such innovation that can help reduce carbon emissions, optimize energy production and distribution, manage renewable energy sources, and improve energy efficiency. By leveraging the power of AI, the energy sector can create a more sustainable future for all, while also ensuring reliable and secure energy supplies. The road ahead may be challenging, but with innovative solutions and collaborative efforts, we can build a brighter and cleaner future for generations to come.

Author Rishi Khandelwal

Blog | AI in Chronic Disease

How AI is Changing the Game in Chronic Disease Care

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How AI is Changing the Game in Chronic Disease Care

As the world continues to grapple with the ever-increasing burden of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, it becomes increasingly apparent that traditional methods of disease management and prevention are no longer sufficient.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), chronic diseases account for almost 40 million deaths globally and are projected to increase to 57 million by 2020[1]. Furthermore, 80% of all deaths from chronic diseases occur in low- and middle-income countries[2].

The need for innovative solutions that address both the medical and lifestyle factors contributing to chronic disease development is paramount. The complexity of this problem requires a multi-disciplinary approach that takes into account the social, economic, and environmental determinants of health, making it a challenging issue to tackle.

The Challenge

Managing chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer poses a considerable challenge due to the requirement of ongoing medical treatment and management. This ongoing care can be a significant burden for patients and their families, as it often entails frequent visits to healthcare providers, regular medication consumption, and the adoption of lifestyle changes to manage the disease. Furthermore, lifestyle factors, such as tobacco use, unhealthy diet, and physical inactivity, not only contribute to the development of chronic diseases but also make them more difficult to manage. These changes can be challenging and may require support from healthcare providers, family, and community resources. Addressing the challenges associated with chronic disease management necessitates a holistic approach that addresses both medical treatment and lifestyle factors.

In addition to the burden on patients and families, the rising cost of chronic disease management in India is a major concern for healthcare systems and policymakers. The economic cost of chronic diseases in India, which was around $100 billion just five years ago, is expected to continue to rise in the coming years, further exacerbating these challenges.

The Solution

Preventing the onset of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer is a crucial approach to addressing the challenges associated with their treatment and management. However, the overburdened and understaffed nature of healthcare systems makes it difficult to provide the necessary care and support to prevent these diseases from developing in the first place. To more effectively address these challenges, advanced tools and technologies are required to aid and better equip healthcare providers. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one such tool that has the potential to revolutionize the management of chronic diseases.

Artificial Intelligence technology-based solutions can be leveraged to improve the prediction, diagnosis, and treatment of chronic diseases by providing healthcare professionals with more efficient and accurate tools. Utilizing AI in chronic disease management can also help to reduce costs and optimize resource utilization. It can assist healthcare professionals in making more informed decisions, identifying at-risk patients, and providing more personalized care.

AI-driven solutions have the potential to bridge the gap between the rising costs and the increasing burden of chronic diseases, making them more accessible and affordable for the population. By incorporating AI-driven solutions, healthcare systems can improve patient outcomes and create a more sustainable healthcare system.

There are several Artificial Intelligence technology-based solutions that are currently being used or have the potential to be used in chronic disease management and prevention:

1. Predictive modeling

Predictive modeling in chronic disease care can be used to identify individuals at high risk of developing a chronic disease and predict outcomes through analyzing patient data such as electronic health records. It can be helpful in chronic disease care by identifying individuals at high risk of developing a chronic disease, predicting outcomes, and guiding the treatment and preventive care decisions.

• Identifying high-risk patients: Machine learning algorithms can be trained on large amounts of data, such as patient EHRs, to identify patterns and predict outcomes.
• Predicting progression: Predictive modeling can be used to predict the progression of chronic diseases such as diabetes by analyzing data such as blood glucose levels and medication use.

2. Early detection

Early detection in chronic disease care refers to identifying the presence of a disease or the risk of developing an infection at an early stage, before the onset of symptoms, or before the disease has progressed significantly. Early detection can be beneficial in several ways:

• Improving outcomes: Early detection can lead to more effective treatment and management of chronic diseases, which can improve outcomes for patients. For example, if a patient with diabetes is diagnosed early on, they can take steps to control their blood sugar levels and prevent the development of complications.
• Reducing costs: Early detection can reduce the costs associated with chronic diseases, as treatments and management strategies are more effective when they are initiated early on.
• Increasing access to care: Early detection can increase access to care for patients, as they are more likely to be diagnosed and treated before the disease progresses and becomes more difficult to manage.
• Reducing the burden on healthcare systems: Early detection can also help to reduce the burden on healthcare systems, as patients with chronic diseases that are diagnosed early on are less likely to require hospitalization or other intensive care.
• Improving the quality of life: Early detection can improve the quality of life for patients, as they can take steps to manage their disease and prevent complications before they occur.

3. Personalized treatment

Personalized treatment or I would prefer to call it precision medicine, is an approach to healthcare that takes into account individual differences in genes, environment, and lifestyle. In the context of chronic disease care, personalized treatment can be helpful in several ways:

• Tailoring treatment to individual needs: Personalized treatment can improve treatment outcomes by taking into account individual differences in genes, environment, and lifestyle.
• Reducing side effects: Personalized treatment can reduce side effects by avoiding treatments that are unlikely to be effective or that may be harmful to the patient.
• Optimizing patient outcomes and reducing costs: Personalized treatment can improve patient outcomes by providing the right treatment for the right patient at the right time, thus reducing the risk of disease progression or complications, and reducing healthcare costs by avoiding unnecessary treatments.

4 Remote monitoring

Patient monitoring is the ongoing measurement and tracking of a patient’s health status in order to detect changes and respond accordingly. Supplementing patient monitoring with Artificial Intelligence can enhance the benefits of patient monitoring in chronic disease care by providing real-time data analysis, personalized treatment plans, and early warning signs.

• Identifying changes in health status: AI algorithms can analyze patient data in real-time and generate alerts for abnormal readings or trends, which can help identify changes in a patient’s health status and allow for early interventions.
• Monitoring treatment effectiveness: AI can process large amounts of data and identify patterns that would be difficult for a human to discern, which can be used to adjust treatment plans as needed. This can help to determine the effectiveness of a treatment plan by tracking changes in a patient’s health status over time.
• Improving communication between healthcare providers, patient outcomes, and engagement: AI can provide healthcare providers with real-time data analysis and personalized treatment plans, which can improve communication between healthcare providers and make treatment decisions more informed. Additionally, AI can provide early warning signs and personalized feedback and advice to the patients to better understand their health status and take action to improve it.

The Conclusion

AI is rapidly changing the paradigm of chronic disease care by leveraging its ability to process large amounts of data, identify patterns, and make predictions. Its potential to reduce mortality rates, alleviate the economic burden on healthcare systems, and improve the overall quality of life for individuals affected by chronic diseases, has been widely acknowledged by healthcare providers, policymakers, and community organizations.

From predictive modeling and patient monitoring to clinical decision support, AI is providing new and innovative ways to manage and treat chronic diseases. By utilizing sophisticated algorithms such as machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing, AI is able to extract valuable insights from complex data sets. This can aid in the development of actionable strategies for disease management and prevention by healthcare providers, policymakers, and community organizations.

As AI technology continues to evolve and become more sophisticated, it has the potential to revolutionize chronic disease care, leading to better outcomes and a higher quality of life for patients. With its ability to provide real-time data analysis, personalized treatment plans, and early warning signs, AI is poised to change the game in chronic disease care, making it more efficient, effective, and personalized.

— Author: Gaurav Lohkna

 

P.S.: For a more detailed and technical analysis of AI-based solutions in Chronic Kidney Disease management (one of 13 major chronic diseases), kindly await the publication of my upcoming study/article. It provides an in-depth examination of cutting-edge technologies, algorithms, and methodologies in chronic care.

References
[1] World Health Organization (WHO). Noncommunicable diseases: Mortality https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/topics/topic-details/GHO/ncd-mortality
[2] World Health Organization (WHO). Global health observatory data. https://www.who.int/gho/en/

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