REVIEW article
Front. Digit. Health
Sec. Health Technology Implementation
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2025.1644041
This article is part of the Research TopicDigital Medicine and Artificial IntelligenceView all 15 articles
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: Applications, Challenges, and Future Directions. A Narrative Review Informed by International, Multidisciplinary Expertise
Provisionally accepted
Ata Mohajer-Bastami1Sarah Moin2
Suhaib Ahmad3*Ahmed R Ahmed4
Sjaak Pouwels5,6
Shahab Hajibandeh7
Wah Yang8Chetan Parmar9
Mohammad Kermansaravi10Miriam Khalil11Ali Waleed Khalid12Ameer Khamise12David Rawaf4Farzad Hosseini13Anurag Agarwal3Anil Lala3Shafi Ahmed14
Bijendra Patel15Barbara Fyntanidou16stavroula g mougiakakou17
Aristomenis K Exadaktylos17- 1Brompton Primary Care Network, London, United Kingdom
- 2East Surrey Hospital, Redhill, United Kingdom
- 3NHS Wales Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, Bangor, United Kingdom
- 4Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
- 5Klinikum Lippe GmbH, Detmold, Germany
- 6Elisabeth TweeSteden Ziekenhuis Waalwijk, Waalwijk, Netherlands
- 7Morriston Hospital, Swansea, United Kingdom
- 8The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
- 9Whittington Hospital, London, United Kingdom
- 10Hazrat-e Fatemeh Hospital, Tehran, Iran
- 11St James's University Hospital, Leeds, United Kingdom
- 12The University of Buckingham, Buckingham, United Kingdom
- 13Kingsmill Hospital, Nottingham, United Kingdom
- 14Barts Health NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom
- 15Barts Cancer Institute, London, United Kingdom
- 16Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
- 17Universitat Bern, Bern, Switzerland
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Objectives: This narrative review evaluates the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, summarizing its historical evolution, current applications across medical and surgical specialties, and implications for allied health professions and biomedical research. Methods: We conducted a structured literature search in Ovid MEDLINE (2018–2025) using terms related to AI, machine learning, deep learning, large language models, generative AI, and healthcare applications. Priority was given to peer-reviewed articles providing novel insights, multidisciplinary perspectives, and coverage of underrepresented domains. Key findings: AI is increasingly applied to diagnostics, surgical navigation, risk prediction, and personalized medicine. It also holds promise in allied health, drug discovery, genomics, and clinical trial optimization. However, adoption remains limited by challenges including bias, interpretability, legal frameworks, and uneven global access. Contributions: This review highlights underexplored areas such as generative AI and allied health professions, providing an integrated multidisciplinary perspective. Conclusions: With careful regulation, clinician-led design, and global equity considerations, AI can augment healthcare delivery and research. Future work must focus on robust validation, responsible implementation, and expanding education in digital medicine.
Keywords: artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, Large language models, Generative AI, Digital Health, healthcare, Surgery
Received: 09 Jun 2025; Accepted: 20 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mohajer-Bastami, Moin, Ahmad, Ahmed, Pouwels, Hajibandeh, Yang, Parmar, Kermansaravi, Khalil, Khalid, Khamise, Rawaf, Hosseini, Agarwal, Lala, Ahmed, Patel, Fyntanidou, mougiakakou and Exadaktylos. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Suhaib Ahmad, suhaibsami94@gmail.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.