Transforming ENT Healthcare: Advancements and Implications of Artificial Intelligence

This systematic literature review aims to study the role and impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in transforming Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) healthcare. It aims to compare and analyse literature that applied AI algorithms for ENT disease prediction and detection based on their effectiveness, methods, dataset, and performance. We have also discussed ENT specialists' challenges and AI's role in solving them. This review also discusses the challenges faced by AI researchers. This systematic review was completed using PRISMA guidelines. Data was extracted from several reputable digital databases, including PubMed, Medline, SpringerLink, Elsevier, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, and IEEExplore. The search criteria included studies recently published between 2018 and 2024 related to the application of AI for ENT healthcare. After removing duplicate studies and quality assessments, we reviewed eligible articles and responded to the research questions. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of AI applications in ENT healthcare. Among the 3257 unique studies, 27 were selected as primary studies. About 62.5% of the included studies were effective in providing disease predictions. We found that Pretrained DL models are more in application than CNN algorithms when employed for ENT disease predictions. The accuracy of models ranged between 75 and 97%. We also observed the effectiveness of conversational AI models such as ChatGPT in the ENT discipline. The research in AI for ENT is advancing rapidly. Most of the models have achieved accuracy above 90%. However, the lack of good-quality data and data variability limits the overall ability of AI models to perform better for ENT disease prediction. Further research needs to be conducted while considering factors such as external validation and the issue of class imbalance.