RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Artificial intelligence in healthcare: past, present and future JF Stroke and Vascular Neurology FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd SP 230 OP 243 DO 10.1136/svn-2017-000101 VO 2 IS 4 A1 Fei Jiang A1 Yong Jiang A1 Hui Zhi A1 Yi Dong A1 Hao Li A1 Sufeng Ma A1 Yilong Wang A1 Qiang Dong A1 Haipeng Shen A1 Yongjun Wang YR 2017 UL http://svn.bmj.com/content/2/4/230.abstract AB Artificial intelligence (AI) aims to mimic human cognitive functions. It is bringing a paradigm shift to healthcare, powered by increasing availability of healthcare data and rapid progress of analytics techniques. We survey the current status of AI applications in healthcare and discuss its future. AI can be applied to various types of healthcare data (structured and unstructured). Popular AI techniques include machine learning methods for structured data, such as the classical support vector machine and neural network, and the modern deep learning, as well as natural language processing for unstructured data. Major disease areas that use AI tools include cancer, neurology and cardiology. We then review in more details the AI applications in stroke, in the three major areas of early detection and diagnosis, treatment, as well as outcome prediction and prognosis evaluation. We conclude with discussion about pioneer AI systems, such as IBM Watson, and hurdles for real-life deployment of AI.