As AI and machine learning continues to evolve, we look at how it has impacted healthcare in 2021.

In common with virtually every other sector, the healthcare industry is being steadily transformed by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Just as AI is changing the way we design our cars, optimise our energy usage and handle our finances, so too is it bringing new opportunities – and risks – to the management of human health, from the potential of deep learning and neural networks in drug discovery to the growing sophistication of AI-enhanced diagnostics and surgical robotics.

Tying all this together is AI’s ability to bring together the vast oceans of data that permeate every aspect of healthcare to help inform decision-making among the sector’s key players, from pharmaceutical innovators to healthcare providers.

While AI and machine learning have become ubiquitous across all sectors – both as buzzwords and as increasingly practical solutions to persistent problems – their adaptation to healthcare inspires particular emotion. After all, few patients relish the idea that a machine might take responsibility for their diagnosis from a human doctor, despite the fact that AI-driven software now routinely outperforms humans in key diagnostic tasks. Others – most notably the esteemed cardiologist and researcher Dr Eric Topol – have countered that smart integration of AI could help make healthcare more human, not less.

As the conversation around AI in drug development and medical technology continues to evolve, the topic has of course been a persistent obsession across our websites. Here, we present some of the key trends and highlights from our coverage of AI in 2021.

The investment landscape in healthcare AI

Industry data is increasingly showing that the pharma and biotech sectors have been stepping up their investment in artificial intelligence and big data technologies in recent years. While a GlobalData (GD) survey suggested that AI and data analytics-related investments declined slightly in 2020 as the pandemic forced companies to focus on more urgent needs, interest is likely to resurge as the sector returns to a more business-as-usual footing in the coming years, as GD analyst Urte Jakimaviciute told Clinical Trials Arena last month.

And the long-term trends for AI-related investment in the life sciences do look encouraging across a number of metrics. As our analysis of GD data has shown, AI-related financing deals jumped from 14 in Q1 2019 to 56 in the same quarter of 2021, while hiring for AI roles and the mentions of AI in company filings have also soared. The number of AI-based patents being generated by the pharma sector also suggests a healthy innovation eco-system, with AI patents rising from 20 in 2014 to 75 in 2020.

Based on the number of AI-related deals, job listings, patents and filings, GD has picked out top performers (or ‘MVPs’) in the AI space by sector. In pharma, Bayer, Novartis, Sanofi and AstraZeneca are among the AI leaders, while Philips, Medtronic, Thermo Fisher and Roche are some of the dominant AI players in the medical technology space.

Source: https://www.medicaldevice-network.com/features/ai-in-healthcare-2021-2/