Revolutionizing healthcare by use of artificial intelligence in esophageal carcinoma - a narrative review

Future prospects of deep learning in esophageal cancer diagnosis and clinical decision support (Review)

Esophageal cancer (EC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide, still faces significant challenges in early diagnosis and prognosis. Early EC lesions often present subtle symptoms and current diagnostic methods are limited in accuracy due to tumor heterogeneity, lesion morphology and variable image quality. These limitations are particularly prominent in the early detection of precancerous lesions such as Barrett's esophagus. Traditional diagnostic approaches, such as endoscopic examination, pathological analysis and computed tomography, require improvements in diagnostic precision and staging accuracy. Deep learning (DL), a key branch of artificial intelligence, shows great promise in improving the detection of early EC lesions, distinguishing benign from malignant lesions and aiding cancer staging and prognosis. However, challenges remain, including image quality variability, insufficient data annotation and limited generalization. The present review summarized recent advances in the application of DL to medical images obtained through various imaging techniques for the diagnosis of EC at different stages. It assesses the role of DL in tumor pathology, prognosis prediction and clinical decision support, highlighting its advantages in EC diagnosis and prognosis evaluation. Finally, it provided an objective analysis of the challenges currently facing the field and prospects for future applications.

How can physicians adopt AI-based applications in the United Arab Emirates to improve patient outcomes?

Objective

The enabling and derailing factors for using artificial intelligence (AI)-based applications to improve patient care in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from the physicians' perspective are investigated. Factors to accelerate the adoption of AI-based applications in the UAE are identified to aid implementation.

Methods

A qualitative, inductive research methodology was employed, utilizing semi-structured interviews with 12 physicians practicing in the UAE. The collected data were analyzed using NVIVO software and grounded theory was used for thematic analysis.

Results

This study identified factors specific to the deployment of AI to transform patient care in the UAE. First, physicians must control the applications and be fully trained and engaged in the testing phase. Second, healthcare systems need to be connected, and the AI outcomes need to be easily interpretable by physicians. Third, the reimbursement for AI-based applications should be settled by insurance or the government. Fourth, patients should be aware of and accept the technology before physicians use it to avoid negative consequences for the doctor-patient relationship.

Conclusions

This research was conducted with practicing physicians in the UAE to determine their understanding of enabling and derailing factors for improving patient care through AI-based applications. The importance of involving physicians as the accountable agents for AI tools is highlighted. Public awareness regarding AI in healthcare should be improved to drive public acceptance.