Application of artificial intelligence in gastroenterology: Potential role in clinical practice

Artificial intelligence (AI) based on deep learning boosted medical research in the past years and is expected to enormously change the style of health care in many aspects in the foreseeable future. Nowadays, there are exploding volumes of healthcare-related data being generated daily. Because of its time-sensitive characteristics, being able to process large amounts of data in real-time fashion is crucial in healthcare settings. In gastroenterology practice, AI can manage and interpret the sheer amount of data with different formats coming from a myriad of sources, including currently used endoscopic or imaging devices, digital record systems, and electronic health records, or from other sources such as governmental databases, social media, or wearable devices over a long period. Traditional gastroenterology is nowadays beginning to transform to a new personalized, predictive, and preventive paradigm. Evidence-based practices and recent studies are coming out every day, and big data-based approaches and the progress in basic sciences and its emerging applications are now becoming the indispensable part of precision medicine. In gastroenterology, AI can be applied in disease diagnosis, treatment guidance, outcome prediction, and reducing workload of the healthcare staff. As the healthcare community begins to embrace AI technology, how to seamlessly construct an interoperable platform to accommodate data with high variety and veracity with high velocity and implement AI in the clinical workflow would be the future challenges.