The future is here
Robots that can detect and classify skin cancer faster and more accurately than any dermatologist. Technology that can assess the optimum circumstances for a specific burn wound to heal. Intelligence that can assist surgeons in providing patients with the best possible aesthetic treatments, based on their real, live, personalized measurements.
If this sounds like something from a James Cameron film, it’s not. It’s what artificial intelligence (AI) has made possible, both in medicine and aesthetic surgery. And it’s being done today.
Over the course of several decades, AI has steadily been integrated into various sectors of our society. By now, transport, business, education, security, communication and media have all benefited from elements such as machine learning, augmented reality, computer vision and big data. And when it comes to aesthetics, AI is quickly becoming the innovative plastic surgeon’s best friend.
Prof Johan Reyneke, specialist Maxillofacial and Oral Surgeon operating from Oranjezicht in Cape Town, explains that having the benefit of AI has unlocked avenues in surgery that would not have been possible otherwise. “Computer-assisted treatment planning is