“Are you looking for an intelligent and entertaining summer reading on AI in health?” Take a look at this! »»joked a head of digital health policy at the DG Health in a recent Post Linkedin, in reference to the 241 -page study on the deployment of AI in this area. If the “entertaining” side is questionable, the report offers a complete analysis of the opportunities and challenges related to health AI.
While the fun parts might be hard to find, the report – published just in time for the summer holidays – provides a comprehensive overview of the topic, including its opportunities and challenges.
Between 2015 and 2024, European research projects on AI in the health field benefited from total funding of 3.5 billion euros, an average of 6.73 million euros per project. Over the same period, the number of medical AI patents increased from 22 in 2017 to 118 in 2023, and the clinical trials of AI medical devices went from six in 2015 to 657 in 2024, illustrating the growing importance of investments and innovation in this sector.
The report highlights that AI is already used in hospitals around the world to automate clinical documentation, improve the speed and precision of diagnostics and allow personalized treatments, with tangible results on the quality of care.
These tools are considered essential to meet growing demand linked to the aging of the population, the rise in chronic diseases, the shortages of staff and the increase in costs.
However, developers and responsible for implementation must deal with a complex regulatory environment, which includes the AI law (You have a document), the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), the Regulation on Medical Devices and the European Espace Project of Health Data (European Health Data Space). The report underlines that “Although solid, the regulatory environment has complexities that can slow down the deployment of AI ».
To remedy these brakes, the study suggests the creation of interdisciplinary IA governance committees in health establishments, as well as the implementation of complete data governance frameworks, robust storage policies, encryption methods and private life protection technologies from design.
The report also emphasizes the importance of strengthening the digital and technical skills of health professionals and patients in order to increase confidence in the reliability and ethics of AI tools.
“Thanks to a strategic action and its desire to overcome the challenges related to the deployment, the EU can position itself as a world leader in innovation in the field of health care based on AI”concludes the study.
