The areas of application of artificial intelligence-based technologies are rapidly expanding, in particular, smart technologies are coming to the aid of doctors and patients. The business is actively creating applied solutions that help quickly identify diseases, analyze X-rays and even develop medicines.
Investments in medical projects are usually characterized by high risk for investors and a fairly long payback period. However, the interest of the business community in such projects, including digital solutions for healthcare, is constantly growing. Investors understand that demand for medical services will always be high. After all, investing in your health is a long-term perspective.
In Russia, startups for the digitalization of healthcare using artificial intelligence find additional support at the state level: a number of development institutions invest in such projects at different stages, and developers receive grants under the federal project “Artificial Intelligence”. intelligence.»
In his address to the Federal Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated the need to achieve self-sufficiency and competitiveness in the field of artificial intelligence, which will ensure a “real breakthrough” in the economy and social sphere. The head of state announced the approval of the updated National Strategy for the Development of Artificial Intelligence, which includes the participation of AI in the creation of digital platforms for healthcare.
«»So, we have to create a platform that will help a citizen maintain and maintain health throughout his life, and use the potential of the entire healthcare system. For example, based on digital profile data, he will be able to obtain a remote opinion from a specialist at a federal medical center, and a doctor or family doctor will be able to evaluate namely, a holistic picture of human health, predict the occurrence of diseases, prevent complications, choose individual and therefore the most effective treatment tactics,” the head of state indicated in his message.
Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko outlined the main global trends in the field of artificial intelligence. The first trend is the desire for technological sovereignty; the second is the tightening of the struggle for AI specialists; the third is the movement towards safe AI with a focus on the individual; the fourth is the development of large language models and generative AI and the fifth is the growth of the economic effect from the use of AI.
As stated in the report of the National Center for the Development of Artificial Intelligence under the Government of the Russian Federation (NCRII), in healthcare, 36.4% of organizations are already using AI in their activities, and 20.6% plan to do so in the near future.
AI TECHNOLOGY IN MEDICINE
Almost all major artificial intelligence technologies today find application in the real practice of healthcare organizations, improving the quality of medical services and thereby increasing the length and quality of life of citizens. Intelligent technologies help predict the occurrence and development of diseases, identify them at an early stage, which increases the chance of successful treatment.
Also, AI solutions simplify the work of doctors during preventive examinations and help in selecting optimal dosages drugs and increase the accuracy of surgical interventions. In the future, according to experts, AI-based solutions will make it possible to create treatments and methods of treatment personalized for each individual patient.
Computer vision technology is being most actively implemented in medical institutions, making it possible to find patterns and anomalies in images obtained using X-rays, CT and MRI. Another AI-based technology is predictive analytics, which makes it possible to discover hidden connections by studying large data sets, increase the accuracy of diagnosis and select an individual treatment plan. Another direction is the creation of a digital twin of the patient: on which you can test various treatment methods without the risk of harming the real patient. Doubles are also used when testing new drugs.
In turn, virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) technologies help medical staff, by simulating real circumstances, learn new skills without the risk of injuring the patient or damaging equipment. Also in medicine, chatbots, voice assistants, and intelligent assistants working on the basis of such AI technologies as natural language processing, speech recognition and synthesis, and intelligent decision support are beginning to be actively used. Digital assistants free medical professionals from routine tasks and allow them to fully focus on more complex diagnostic issues and treatment.
ALREADY IN BUSINESS
Artificial intelligence in healthcare today is widely represented by existing cases from domestic developers. Thus, with the support of the Innovation Promotion Fund, a Russian company has developed a cloud-based ophthalmological platform based on artificial intelligence.Evgenia Katalevskaya, medical director of the development company, said that the project uses convolutional neural networks that are trained on data marked by specialists and solve the problem of segmenting signs of pathologies in medical images of the retina.
«»The platform helps doctors diagnose eye diseases that develop with diabetes, as well as age-related retinal diseases. AI identifies diseases at an early stage, when the patient does not yet have complaints, as well as patients at high risk of vision loss who urgently require complex specialized treatment,” says Katalevskaya.
The creators of the platform see their prospects in introducing the technology into widespread clinical practice, so that patients who come for an examination at a city clinic have access to advanced technologies.
Medical AI developments are also supported by the Skolkovo Foundation (VEB.RF Group), which allocates special grants for upgrading software using AI algorithms. Thus, one of the Skolkovo residents is already introducing artificial intelligence services in 19 regions of the country that support the doctor’s workflow when interpreting diagnostic studies. Also in a number of regions, systems are being launched to analyze video streams in hospitals, intensive care units and intensive care units.
«»The greatest interest today is in services for processing studies during medical examination of the population — chest X-rays, fluorograms, mammograms. During medical examination, doctors process a large flow of studies that do not have deviations from the norm, which creates a high routine load and increases the risk of missing a rare pathology. AI services they save time by at least 30% and improve the quality of diagnostics,” explains the company’s general director Anna Meshcheryakova.
And the “AI Monitoring” solution of this resident allows you to analyze the video stream in hospitals in real time and effectively monitor even patients in serious condition. Using computer vision algorithms, the system monitors unwanted events and notifies about them. Due to this, the speed of response of medical staff to them increases 50 times, and the number of negative events that occur is reduced to zero.
Under the federal project “Artificial Intelligence”, the Innovation Promotion Fund has already financed over 850 projects of AI developers. Applications for competitions for innovators in the field of artificial intelligence are open until May 13. Grants of up to 8 million rubles can be received by both individuals and legal entities. In turn, during the duration of the federal project, the Skolkovo Foundation supported 25 projects for the pilot implementation of AI solutions by large customers. In addition, 12 research centers in the field of AI received grants for the development of applied technological solutions, training of specialized specialists and the formation of data sets.
Thanks to the implementation of the National Strategy for the Development of Artificial Intelligence, by 2030 the number of university graduates who have mastered educational AI programs will grow to 15.5 thousand people per year. And the share of workers with skills in using AI will be at least 80%. It is also expected that by 2030, the share of industries with a high level of AI readiness will reach 95%. With maximum investments, additional GDP growth from the mass implementation of AI will amount to 11.2 trillion rubles by 2030, experts predict.