Growth in artificial intelligence can be seen everywhere, and the technology has a major role to play in the healthcare space. AI opens many new doors in healthcare and is changing how startups in the field operate. Recently, the number of startups entering the healthcare AI space has grown even more rapidly, showing the importance of revolutionary technology like AI and machine learning in healthcare. More than 50 companies have raised their first equity rounds since the beginning of 2015, and the number of startups jumped from fewer than 20 in 2012 to nearly 70 last year.
By 2025, AI systems could be involved in everything from population health management, to digital avatars capable of answering specific patient queries, said Harpreet Singh Buttar, analyst at Frost & Sullivan.
There are many ways AI is changing how healthcare startups operate and opening doors for new advances in the space. Here are a few of the most common AI trends:
Monitoring patients remotely
Some of the most lucrative startups with extremely successful seed rounds have been companies that allow for remote patient monitoring. California-based sense.ly created a virtual nursing assistant called Molly that follows up with patients after they have been discharged. The company claims Molly gives traditional clinicians 20% of their day back by providing basic services that can easily be automated instead of relying on humans. Extra time can give healthcare professionals more time for professional development like ACLS certification. Other companies are focused on creating sensors that allow patients to be monitored from a distance. One such company, Sentrian, has products that analyze biosensor data and send patient-specific alerts to doctors and nurses, meaning patients can be at home or in a less invasive clinic and be monitored by smart sensors that know when to get healthcare providers involved. The technology to monitor patients remotely has been extremely successful because patients tend to want more freedom and less time at traditional hospitals and care centers ”applying this new technology to the market demand has created great opportunities for AI startups to give patients exactly what they want.
AI-based algorithms
Broader AI companies have been growing for quite some time, especially those that build successful algorithms for data analysis. There has been a recent trend of these larger companies applying their algorithms and best practices to the healthcare space to inspire and influence a new wave of startups. Using machine learning programs, these algorithms can be applied to a number of areas in the healthcare space, including patient risk scoring and readmission reduction. Algorithms can also do things like predict the best treatment course or assist with patient diagnoses. With so much healthcare data available today, it can be overwhelming for humans to sort through it all. With advanced algorithms to weed through the data, more connections can be made and patient decisions can be made that are faster and more accurate than when simply made by humans.
Drug discovery and testing
One of the most expensive and time-consuming parts of the healthcare industry has long been discovering and testing new drugs, but that is changing with the new wave of AI startups. These new companies are using machine learning algorithms to reduce drug discovery times, meaning that companies can move the process along much faster and remove much of the guesswork that comes with the early stages of drug development. These algorithms can also predict what changes need to be made to the drugs to make them safer and more effective. This AI application has the potential to create many more life-saving pharmaceutical options and get them to market much more quickly. When partnered with larger pharmaceutical companies, the AI startups can bring their algorithms and combine them with the scientific power of the more established companies to create powerful new drugs that provide accurate results with short development times.
Artificial intelligence opens doors in healthcare to things that were previously unimaginable. This new technology is changing how healthcare startups operate and adding an entirely new layer to the fast-paced field that can revolutionize how we treat patients.
