Disease Prognosis and Tribal Medicine: Opportunities for Integrating Indigenous Healthcare Knowledge with AI-Based Clinical Decision Systems

Abstract

The rising number of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) among tribal communities have become a major public health issue not only throughout India but also in many developing countries today. Historically, tribal health care systems have been based upon traditional medicinal knowledge; ethnomedicine practices; and the healing traditions of their communities; which have developed over many generations within their respective ecological environments through interactions between people and nature. Although tribal communities continue to rely heavily on traditional medicine for their health care needs, contemporary health care policies and technology focus primarily on biomedical approaches to treating disease and disregard, to a large extent, the traditional knowledge base relating to the use of indigenous medicinal practices. At the same time that there have been significant advances in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and clinical decision support systems (CDSSs), which have changed and improved how diseases are diagnosed, treated, and managed globally, there have been few if any studies examining the extent to which these types of AI-based health care technologies have been, or can be, utilized within tribal contexts. Most existing studies on tribal medicine and AI-based health care have treated both subjects as completely separate and independent fields of study, resulting in conceptual and practical gaps in the medical literature on these topics. This review of the literature examines scholarly articles and papers on the relationship between tribal medicine, disease diagnosis and prognosis, indigenous health care knowledge and health disparities in tribal communities, and AI-based clinical decision systems. The findings of this review support the conclusion that tribal medicine should not be construed solely as an ancient or traditional form of medicine; rather, tribal medicine is a continually evolving knowledge system capable of providing relevant insight into modern approaches toward managing the health of contemporary society. In addition, this research paper examines how to integrate traditional indigenous healing practices with AI technologies to improve predictive modelling, access to healthcare, and equitable outcomes in medicine for under-served native communities. The researchers found many deficiencies in terms of including traditional knowledge in AI systems, creating a need for frameworks that address cultural sharing, ethical grounding, and social inclusion in the design and use of health care technology. Overall, researchers concluded that the future of tribal health care will require interdisciplinary solutions for connecting conventional healing methods with new digital health technologies.