Guest Editorial Special Issue on Artificial Intelligence in Automation for Healthcare Applications

Mingming Zhang, Yong Hu, Chandramouli Krishnan
2021 IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering  
Advancement in healthcare solutions is one of the major success stories of our times. While biomedical science and engineering has progressed significantly, increased human longevity has created huge demands on the healthcare system, such as the workforce that is struggling to meet the needs of patients. With the advent of healthcare automation, doctor offices, hospitals, and other medical facilities have streamlined the way they deal with patients with enhanced efficiency. Healthcare
more » ... is the technology by which a process or procedure is performed with minimal assistance from medical care personnel. It has been achieved by a variety of means including mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical, electronic devices, and computers, usually in combination. It is worth noting that traditional automation is great for repetitive tasks that follow instructions or workflows set by individuals. In recent years, significant advancements in technology and engineering have generated numerous opportunities for innovation in healthcare automation. Such opportunities and challenges have significantly expanded the scopes of traditional automation science and engineering for healthcare applications, and a typical example is the integration of artificial intelligence (AI). AI refers to how computational systems can use huge amounts of data to imitate human intelligence and reasoning, allowing the system to learn, predict, and recommend what to do next. AI has the potential to transform healthcare delivery, such as improved healthcare outcomes, patient experience, and access to healthcare services. When automation is combined with elements of AI such as machine learning, the result is known as intelligent healthcare automation. Such a tool is powerful because it allows us to reap both the benefits of automation-increased speed and efficiency, and ability to scale-with the insights and process power of AI. The central theme of this Special Issue is emerging technologies and future directions in AI in automation for healthcare applications, where information technology-based modeling, analysis, control, and optimization are the focus areas. The goals are twofold: (1) to present the state-ofthe-art research in science, engineering, and methodologies for intelligent healthcare automation, and (2) to provide a forum for experts to disseminate their recent advances and views on future perspectives in the relevant field. We received where he has been the Assistant Professor of Department of Biomedical Engineering. He has authored over 50 academic articles and one book. His research interests include medical and rehabilitation robotics, physical human-robot interaction, intelligent control, and bio-signal-based pattern recognition. He also holds over 30 patents. Dr. Zhang has served as the invited reviewer
doi:10.1109/tase.2021.3064011 fatcat:pnzrr6inarbshol5mab7nlmc6m