Shaping the future of medicine

Artificial intelligence and big data are not only shaping the consumer goods industry - they are also creating a revolution in medical technology that has not been seen for over a century.

The collection of information about a person's health makes it possible to search for unusual features and correlations by using artificial intelligence (AI) systems. With today's generation of computer chips and sensors, this can be done with ever larger amounts of information at an ever lower cost. Data-based approaches are particularly promising in the fields of monitoring, diagnostics and research into efficient and personalized treatment methods. It is estimated that the annual market volume for AI systems in the healthcare sector will grow to around USD 6 billion by 2022.

More intelligent systems, machine learning and ever-increasing amounts of data create new possibilities for automation. The use of information technologies in diagnostics means, for example, that machine learning algorithms can detect lung cancer using computed tomography scans, assess the risk of heart disease using electrocardiograms, or find indicators of diabetic retinopathy in images of the eye. This requires thousands of existing cases to enable correct diagnosis by the AI. This supports physicians - especially in precision medicine - with the treatment of patients while taking individual circumstances into account. The use of such technologies is not only efficient, but it also saves enormous costs. The basis of such developments is driven by advancements in sensor technology. Learn more about personalized medicine in the specialist article.