Currently submitted to: JMIR Medical Informatics
Date Submitted: Mar 18, 2024
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Outlook of Artificial Intelligence for Traditional Chinese Medicine
ABSTRACT
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a holistic medical system with more than 2,000 years of empirical backing, with unique diagnostic methods, including inspection, auscultation and olfaction, inquiry, and palpation. Despite TCM's holistic and subjective diagnostic approach, Artificial intelligence (AI) promises to enhance diagnostic accuracy, treatment efficacy, and prognosis by leveraging advanced data analysis and machine learning techniques. This review provides an overview the potential applications of AI across TCM's four main diagnostic methods, highlighting recent advancements, challenges, and future directions. AI-powered Tuina massage robots and AI-directed acupuncture manipulation, underscoring the potential for personalized treatment and improved clinical outcomes. However, successful AI integration faces challenges including data quality, interdisciplinary collaboration, computational interpretation of TCM theories, ethical considerations, and regulatory frameworks. Addressing these challenges is crucial for realizing AI's full potential in TCM and advancing patient care in modern healthcare systems.
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