Passport Health logo
VACCINATIONS|FIND A TRAVEL CLINIC|ADVICE
  • Home
    • About
        • Company History
        • Careers
        • Executive Team
        • Contact Us
        • Customer Feedback
        • FAQ
        • Mission Statement
        • Privacy Policy
        • Blog
    • Close
  • Destination Advice
    • Top Destinations
        • Brazil
        • China
        • Costa Rica
        • India
        • Kenya
        • Peru
        • Philippines
        • South Africa
        • Thailand
        • Vietnam
    • Destination Advice
          • Afghanistan
          • Albania
          • Algeria
          • American Samoa
          • Andorra
          • Angola
          • Anguilla
          • Antarctica
          • Antigua and Barbuda
          • Argentina
          • Armenia
          • Aruba
          • Australia
          • Austria
          • Azerbaijan
          • Azores
          • Bahamas
          • Bahrain
          • Balearics
          • Bangladesh
          • Barbados
          • Belarus
          • Belgium
          • Belize
          • Benin
          • Bermuda
          • Bhutan
          • Bolivia
          • Bonaire
          • Bora Bora
          • Bosnia
          • Botswana
          • Brazil
          • British Virgin Islands
          • Brunei
          • Bulgaria
          • Burkina Faso
          • Burma
          • Burundi
          • Cambodia
          • Cameroon
          • Canada
          • Canary Islands
          • Cape Verde
          • Cayman Islands
          • Central African Republic
          • Chad
          • Chile
          • China
          • Christmas Island
          • Cocos (Keeling) Islands
          • Colombia
          • Comoros
          • Cook Islands
          • Costa Rica
          • Cote d'Ivoire
          • Croatia
          • Cuba
          • Curacao
          • Cyprus
          • Czechia
          • Democratic Republic of the Congo
          • Denmark
          • Djibouti
          • Dominica
          • Dominican Republic
          • East Timor
          • Easter Island
          • Ecuador
          • Egypt
          • El Salvador
          • Equatorial Guinea
          • Eritrea
          • Estonia
          • Ethiopia
          • Falkland Islands
          • Faroe Islands
          • Fiji
          • Finland
          • France
          • French Guiana
          • French Polynesia
          • Gabon
          • Gambia
          • Georgia
          • Germany
          • Ghana
          • Gibraltar
          • Greece
          • Greenland
          • Grenada
          • Guadeloupe
          • Guam
          • Guatemala
          • Guinea-Bissau
          • Guinea
          • Guyana
          • Haiti
          • Hawaii
          • Honduras
          • Hong Kong
          • Hungary
          • Ibiza
          • Iceland
          • India
          • Indonesia
          • Iran
          • Iraq
          • Ireland
          • Israel
          • Italy
          • Jamaica
          • Japan
          • Jordan
          • Kazakhstan
          • Kenya
          • Kiribati
          • Kosovo
          • Kuwait
          • Kyrgyzstan
          • Laos
          • Latvia
          • Lebanon
          • Lesotho
          • Liberia
          • Libya
          • Liechtenstein
          • Lithuania
          • Luxembourg
          • Macau
          • Macedonia
          • Madagascar
          • Madeira Islands
          • Malawi
          • Malaysia
          • Maldives
          • Mali
          • Malta
          • Marshall Islands
          • Martinique
          • Mauritania
          • Mauritius
          • Mayotte
          • Mexico
          • Micronesia
          • Moldova
          • Monaco
          • Mongolia
          • Montenegro
          • Montserrat
          • Morocco
          • Mozambique
          • Namibia
          • Nauru
          • Nepal
          • Netherlands
          • New Caledonia
          • New Zealand
          • Nicaragua
          • Niger
          • Nigeria
          • Niue
          • Norfolk Island
          • North Korea
          • Northern Mariana Islands
          • Norway
          • Oman
          • Pakistan
          • Palau
          • Palestinian Territories
          • Panama
          • Papua New Guinea
          • Paraguay
          • Peru
          • Philippines
          • Pitcairn Islands
          • Poland
          • Portugal
          • Puerto Rico
          • Qatar
          • Republic of the Congo
          • Réunion
          • Romania
          • Russia
          • Rwanda
          • Saba
          • St. Barthelemy
          • Saint Helena
          • St. Kitts and Nevis
          • St. Lucia
          • Saint Martin
          • St. Pierre-et-Miquelon
          • St. Vincent and the Grenadines
          • Samoa
          • San Marino
          • Sao Tome and Principe
          • Saudi Arabia
          • Senegal
          • Serbia
          • Seychelles
          • Sierra Leone
          • Singapore
          • Sint Eustatius
          • Slovakia
          • Slovenia
          • Solomon Islands
          • Somalia
          • South Africa
          • South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
          • South Korea
          • South Sudan
          • Spain
          • Sri Lanka
          • Sudan
          • Suriname
          • Swaziland
          • Sweden
          • Switzerland
          • Syria
          • Tahiti
          • Taiwan
          • Tajikistan
          • Tanzania
          • Thailand
          • Togo
          • Tokelau
          • Tonga
          • Trinidad and Tobago
          • Tunisia
          • Turkey
          • Turkmenistan
          • Turks and Caicos Islands
          • Tuvalu
          • U.S. Virgin Islands
          • Uganda
          • Ukraine
          • United Arab Emirates
          • United Kingdom
          • United States
          • Uruguay
          • Uzbekistan
          • Vanuatu
          • Vatican
          • Venezuela
          • Vietnam
          • Wake Island
          • Western Sahara
          • Yemen
          • Zambia
          • Zimbabwe
    • Close
  • Travel Medicine
    • Travel Medical Services
        • Vaccines for Travel
        • Travel Health Consulting
        • Travellers’ Diarrhea Kits
        • Dengue Fever Prevention
        • Malaria Medication
        • Chikungunya Prevention
        • Zika Virus Prevention
        • Ebola Virus
        • Coronavirus
    • Close
  • Vaccinations
    • Key Travel Vaccines
      • Typhoid
      • Yellow Fever
      • Hepatitis A
      • Rabies
      • Japanese Encephalitis
      • Drug Identification Numbers (DIN)
    • Other Travel Vaccines
      • Cholera (Dukoral)
      • Hep A/Typhoid Combo (Vivaxim)
      • Hepatitis B
      • Malaria Information
      • Meningitis
      • Polio
    • Routine Vaccinations
      • Tetanus-Diphtheria-Pertussis
      • Measles – Mumps – Rubella (MMR)
      • Pneumonia
      • Shingles
      • Influenza (The Flu)
    • Close
  • Other Services
    • Additional Services
      • TB Tests
      • Physician Referral Program
    • Close
  • For Employers
    • Corporate Wellness Solutions
      • Travel Medicine & Vaccinations
      • Onsite Flu Clinics
      • Onsite Vaccination Clinics
      • Biometric Screenings
      • Vaccine Credentialing
    • Close
  • Locations
        • Ontario
          Barrie Travel Clinic
          Brampton Travel Clinic
          Carlington - Ottawa Travel Clinic
          Downtown - Ottawa Travel Clinic
          Etobicoke Travel Clinic
          Hamilton Travel Clinic
          Kingston Travel Clinic
          Kitchener Travel Clinic
          London Travel Clinic
          Markham Travel Clinic
          Mississauga Travel Clinic
          North York Travel Clinic
          Oakville Travel Clinic
          Richmond Hill Travel Clinic
          St. Catharines Travel Clinic
          Toronto Travel Clinic
          Whitby Travel Clinic
          Yorkville Travel Clinic
        • Alberta
          Chinook - Calgary Travel Clinic
          Downtown Calgary Travel Clinic
          Downtown Edmonton Travel Clinic
          Southeast Edmonton Travel Clinic
          St. Albert Travel Clinic
        • British Columbia
          Burnaby Travel Clinic
          Downtown Vancouver Travel Clinic
          North Vancouver Travel Clinic
          Richmond Travel Clinic
          Surrey Travel Clinic
        • Quebec
          Clinique Santé-Voyage Centre-Ville Montréal
          Clinique Santé-Voyage Laval
          Clinique Santé-Voyage Ville de Québec
          Clinique Santé-Voyage Westmount
    • Close

Could Advances in AI Healthcare be the End of Incurable Disease?

February 10, 2023 by Ann Rapier

AI could play an important role in ending rare diseases

As healthcare rapidly advances, so does technology. Separately, these two fields tackle the world’s problems every day. Together, these two fields can tackle the world’s most overlooked healthcare issues.

With everything else that is going on in the world, it is all too easy to delay research and funding for rare diseases. As major companies turn their focus to larger, more impactful concerns, there are a few small companies working on AI in healthcare. Companies like DeepMind and Healx have recently made advancements in the AI healthcare fields.

In December 2020 DeepMind released AlphaFold 2, a unique AI system that explains how proteins fold. With this information, healthcare researchers can accurately and quickly model proteins for future reference. Knowing the structure of proteins allows scientist to discover what medications work best against them. With this information, experts will have a wealth of information at their fingertips to help discover cures and treatments for rare disease.

The release of AlphaFold 2 is a major breakthrough in healthcare, and was hailed the solution to a 50-year-old problem. There are an estimated 7000 rare diseases, affecting 350 million people worldwide. The Drugs for Neglected Disease institute (DNDi) develops life-saving treatments for neglected diseases. This is where companies like Healx step in with their AI programs.

Healx created the Healnet platform, a comprehensive rare disease knowledge base. It allows providers to make accurate predictions when treating rare diseases. Predictions about treatments enable providers to make decisions quickly, which could be life-saving.

Advances in AI healthcare go beyond the treatment of rare disease. These advances in AI can help personalize healthcare for individual circumstances. Healthcare is very in depth and goes far below the surface. Genetic subtypes, both for individuals and diseases, can sometimes stump physicians. AI databases are loaded with more information than a human can retain. This gives AI the ability to quickly and efficiently diagnose a problem. That’s not to say that you will soon be seeing an artificial physician, AI’s role in healthcare is intended to be supportive.

Alone AI is not able to efficiently care for a patient, the system has to learn through trial and error, which can be dangerous for patients. That is why the role of physician will remain in human hands, while the algorithms (a set of problem-solving rules) will be left to AI.

“The superpower of these AI systems is that they can look at all of these large amounts of data and hopefully surface the right information or the right predictions at the right time,” said Finale Doshi-Velez, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

We don’t know how long it will take for AI to fully launch into healthcare, but it offers a promising future to patients with rare diseases. Merging AI with healthcare will be one of the most beneficial to happen to healthcare, and will undoubtedly alter the profession forever.

Passport Health offers a variety of vaccination and physical services to help you stay safe and healthy at home and abroad. Call or book online to schedule your appointment today.

Written for Passport Health by Brittany Evans. Brittany is a freelance writer and photographer in North Carolina. She has a passion for the outdoors, health information, and traveling. You can find her at her website.

Filed Under: General Posts

About Us

Passport Health's blog provides travelers and travel enthusiasts with a variety of news and features. We focus on bringing the most interesting and relevant stories right to our readers. Topics range from the vaccines needed for a destination to updates on recent outbreaks, travel advice and much more. Feel free to check out some of our most popular posts, linked in the sidebar, or our most recent posts below

Recent Blog Posts

  • How Did the New Omicron Variant Develop? Why Did it Develop So Quickly?
  • When to Get the Twinrix Vaccine Before Traveling Abroad
  • Will There Ever Be a Cure For HPV?
  • The History of AIDS

Blog Archives

  • About Us
  • Clinical Trials
  • Contact Us
  • PIPEDA Policy and Consent Form
  • Privacy Policy
  • Automatic Data Collection Statement
  • Sitemap
Schedule Your Appointment
Questions? Please call or E-mail Us
Connect With Us:
Passport Health Canada on Facebook
Passport Health on Twitter
Passport Health on YouTube
Passport Health on Instagram
Passport Health on Linked In
Passport Health Feed

Passport Health is an Outlier business Passport Health es una empresa que pertenece al grupo Outlier Passport Health est une entreprise du groupe Outlier Copyright © 2023