This systematic review was conducted to identify the AI application in decision making for disease management. Based on the findings of the current study and the literature, the important and progressive role of AI in prediction, screening, prognosis, diagnosis, detection, processing and managing data of diseases, and an array of reliable suggestions for disease management, should be addressed.
The role of AI in “processing and managing data” is the first theme that was extracted based on an analysis of the studies. Big data analysis, data capturing /data acquisition, integration, classification, processing, understanding and mining are the prominent AI applications in processing and managing data of diseases (9–28). Data and data capacity analysis have a considerable role in decision making in disease management by clinicians. Also, clinicians can improve the accuracy of their decisions and interventions by having access to more reliable data and greater ability to conduct precise analysis on this data. Thus, based on the results of this study (Table 1), AI has a vital role and capability in managing data of diseases.
“Prediction and risk stratification” of disease was the second theme that was extracted from studies on AI applications in decision-making. Disease prediction and risk stratification, forecast of disease occurrence, prediction of infectious diseases, prediction of aging-related diseases, prediction of disease risk for anomaly detection, prediction of mortality risk, prediction of future events, prediction of the spread of disease, and predictive models for diseases are some AI applications in disease prediction and their risk stratification (29–42). Therefore, AI has considerable capacity in disease prediction and risk stratification that should be considered in para clinical centers.
The results of this study also revealed that AI has important applications in disease screening. AI can have a major role in the screening process, by supporting the screening process and staging, as categorized as the third theme entitled “screening” (43–48). Screening is an important stage in decision making for disease management and future stages of intervention and treatment. The fact that AI and its tools can play a role in screening diseases, and provide the desired outputs with more accuracy and confidence, is very good news for the treatment staff, patients and stakeholders. Therefore, the capabilities of AI in disease screening should not be neglected.
“Prognosis” was the fourth theme that was extracted from studies as the main application of AI in decision-making for disease management. Prognosis is a prediction of the course of a disease following its onset. It refers to the possible outcomes of a disease (e.g. death, chance of recovery, recurrence) and the frequency with which these outcomes can be expected to occur (49). Precise prognostic predictions, prognostic analysis, prognostic assumptions, and prognostic decision-making in a clinical setting are the practical aspects of artificial intelligence in the prognosis of diseases (48, 50–54). This ability of AI can help clinicians to make better decisions on the possible outcome of diseases.
Another capability of AI in decision making for disease management was “diagnosis”, which refers to identifying the conditions that explain a person's symptoms and signs, which are normally obtained from the patient's history and physical examination. For example, we found that AI has considerable ability in diagnosing myocardial infarction (MI), diagnosing periapical lesions, diagnosing thyroid nodules, diagnosis and staging of prostate cancer (PCA), diagnosis of oesophageal cancer, diagnosis of outcomes for heart failure (HF), endodontic diagnosis and therapy, and neurological diagnostic support and novel image recognition technologies (32, 46, 55–59). Thus, AI can serve as a reliable assistance for clinicians in disease diagnosis.
“Detection and quantification” was the sixth theme that was extracted after analysis of the studies. We found that AI is applied in automated detection and quantification, automatic detection of thyroid diseases, Covid-19 detection and prevention, detection and classification of different classes of colorectal cancer (CC), detection to minimize incomplete colon capsule endoscopy (CCE), detection of disease and differentiation of pathology, detection of malignant arrhythmias, early detection of cardiac events, early fertility detection, non-invasive detection of atherosclerotic coronary artery aneurysms (CAA), proper detection and treatment of oral cancer (OC), and discrete recognition (29, 56, 60–70). Therefore, AI’s ability in detection and quantification of disease should not be underestimated; rather, this feature should be optimized.