Machine learning and artificial intelligence in the service of medicine: Necessity or potentiality?

MOTIVATION: As a result of the worldwide health care system digitalization trend, the produced healthcare data is estimated to reach as much as 2314 Exabytes of new data generated in 2020. The ongoing development of intelligent systems aims to provide better reasoning and to more efficiently use the data collected. This use is not restricted retrospective interpretation, that is, to provide diagnostic conclusions. It can also be extended to prospective interpretation providing early prognosis. That said, physicians who could be assisted by these systems find themselves standing in the gap between clinical case and deep technical reviews. What they lack is a clear starting point from which to approach the world of machine learning in medicine. METHODOLOGY AND MAIN STRUCTURE: This article aims at providing interested physicians with an easy-to-follow insight of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) use in the medical field, primarily over the last few years. To this end, we first discuss the general developmental paths concerning AI and ML concept usage in healthcare systems. We then list fields where these technologies are already being put to the test or even applied such as in Hematology, Neurology, Cardiology, Oncology, Radiology, Ophthalmology, Cell Biology and Cell Therapy.