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TechInsight360’s Q3 Global AI Survey reveals that global spending in healthcare sector is expected to exceed US$ 2.1 billion in 2018, a bit higher than earlier estimates. This is driven by increased allocation from towards AI projects by mid-tier businesses. Artificial Intelligence (AI) spend in Global has increased at 81.3% during 2017 to reach US$ 19 billion. Over the forecast period (2018-2025), spend on AI is expected to record a CAGR of 29.3%, increasing from US$ 29.9 billion in 2018 to reach US$ 180 billion by 2025.
Interestingly, the trend of increased investment in AI based applications and solutions in healthcare industry has been recorded across regions. While European Union has announced an investment of $24 billion into AI by 2020 in May 2018 with healthcare being a primary focus area, spending in Asia Pacific and North America has posted strong growth.
Investment in AI based solutions in healthcare is being driven by enhanced value proposition of solutions and cost reduction. While in developed economies focus is more on preventive healthcare, in emerging economies, the AI development in healthcare sector is driven by necessity. In India and China, for example, there is a rush to develop AI-advancements in healthcare owing to the shortage of doctors. AI assistance in healthcare can effectively resolve the shortage problem by relieving the doctors from simple, repetitive and mundane works. As an example, the AI-assisted medical consultation system of Ping An Good Doctor includes a pulse taking machine that enables quick preliminary checks along with prescriptions for the patients without having to visit hospital.
In addition to preventive healthcare solutions such as detecting critical illness (cancer for example), other key focus areas include administrative workflow assistance, robot-assisted surgery and virtual nursing assistants, preliminary diagnosis, automated image diagnosis, fraud detection, and dosage error reduction.
Japan based robotics firm, Cyberdyne has allocated a new fund for supporting start-ups focused on robotics technology, AI, and healthcare. This fund has been launched in collaboration with Daido Life Insurance, Daiwa House Industry, Mizuho Bank, and Sompo Japan Nipponkoa. The innovative technologies developed by the start-ups will be brought in synergies with the robot suits of Cyberdyne to offer walking assistance to patients and enter niche related markets.
Some of the other interesting start-ups include:
- Idx – This Iowa-based company has developed an AI diagnostic system, IDx-DR, which is capable of doing image analysis of retina to detect signs of diabetic retinopathy. The use of IDx-DR thus enables the healthcare providers to identify the signs without relying on eye-care specialist for interpretation of image sans.
- Bot M.D. – A start-up aimed at improving the healthcare market and empowering the doctors in the Latin American region. Bot M.D. through their AI applications is providing the strained healthcare system of the countries in this region with faster consultation process and use of transcription services for reducing the workloads on clinicians.
- Maxwell Plus – MaxwellPlus is a medical AI start-up based at Brisbane that provides an AI platform for clinical diagnostics driven by data. The start-up recently received funding worth US$ 1.1 million from Cooperative Research Centre Projects (CRCP) grant scheme of the federal government for development of technology for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease.
To know more and get deeper understanding of AI in healthcare industry, click here.
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