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Cranfield, UK, 5th July 2024, I’m thrilled to share some of the most exciting developments in Generative AI (gen AI) in healthcare from the past month. With over 30 articles reviewed, I have curated my favourite ones for you below, with three key themes emerging: breakthroughs in Pharma and Life Sciences; strategic partnerships involving big tech; and innovative healthcare solutions from industry leaders. Let’s dive in! For the post highlighting the news, you can follow the hyperlink here.
Pharma and Life Sciences
Generative AI is making waves in drug development and enhancing the process. Google recently introduced a model aimed at boosting drug discovery and therapeutic development. I had the pleasure of attending a Code Ocean webinar earlier this month. I was captivated by their creation of a database of Foundation Models in Biotech and Pharma. This resource could be invaluable for selecting the right model for your projects.
If you’re venturing into the use of generative AI in Pharma & Life Sciences, I’m starting my research in this area and would love to hear what questions or topics interest you.
Healthcare Solutions
Next, major players like Palantir and InterSystems showcased generative AI applications to improve operational efficiency. Signify Research has published a comprehensive report for those interested in EMR and Digital Health vendor strategies, which I can provide an overview of if needed.
Spotlight on Partnerships
About a year ago, I wrote an article titled ‘The Gen AI Healthcare Ecosystem Around Big Tech‘. Have things changed since then? Somewhat, but not dramatically. In May, we published a comprehensive report on the generative AI opportunities and strategies for Big Tech in healthcare. This report provides an in-depth analysis of the topic. If you want to learn more, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
However, for the purpose of this discussion, I want to focus on industry relationships and their implications. My goal is to help readers understand why we’re seeing certain developments in the industry. Let me break down the key points and relationships that are shaping the current landscape…
Big Tech continues to forge strategic partnerships, bringing their vast resources—talent, cloud computing, and financial power—to the table. This synergy is driving innovation and efficiency in healthcare. Let’s break down why these partnerships are so impactful. Companies like Google, Microsoft, and AWS offer the computational power and infrastructure that healthcare organisations need to deploy advanced AI solutions. Their primary business strategy revolves around selling cloud capacity directly to healthcare providers or collaborating with healthcare IT vendors.
Healthcare providers like the Mayo Clinic are crucial players because they hold the gold—high-quality, curated healthcare data. Mayo Clinic Platform_Discover, for instance, allows for robust AI model training and validation. Providers that excel in data aggregation and analysis are well-positioned to leverage the latest AI technologies.
Healthcare IT vendors have historically tailored their solutions to the specific challenges faced by providers. You might wonder why providers don’t solve these problems themselves. Tobias Zwingmann’s insightful talk at the InterSystems Global Summit, “How to Fail with AI (and how to succeed!),” explains the challenges faced by healthcare organisations in implementing AI strategy. Hence, many providers prefer outsourcing: the complexity and risk of AI projects are high, and specialised vendors can often deliver better results.
However, Allegheny Health Network (AHN) developed a Chat-GPT tool for administrative tasks in collaboration with Google. This tool, trained on AHN’s data, assists with writing letters, filling out paperwork, and ordering medications. It’s a prime example of how a digitally advanced provider can leverage AI for operational improvements. My colleague Alan has written a wonderful Insight that dives deep into the evolving role healthcare providers will play in developing their solutions here.
I want to highlight a growing trend in this short post: the rise of low-code/no-code platforms from major tech companies that democratise access to AI. These platforms allow non-technical users to fine-tune AI models for specific use cases. Imagine a future where more healthcare providers can customise generative AI models to meet their needs without heavily relying on external vendors. While this could reduce the need for healthcare IT vendors, is it realistic? The answer is likely no, and here’s why:
The challenge of data curation remains significant. Collecting, cleaning, and standardising data is resource-intensive, often requiring months and substantial financial investment. Although big tech can democratise AI deployment, the intricate work of data curation and management is where healthcare IT vendors excel. Their expertise in data aggregation, mapping, and standardisation is invaluable, providing tailored solutions that are difficult for big tech to scale.
Healthcare IT vendors also excel in their core competencies, as broadly defined by Signify Research’s Healthcare IT ecosystem. They can further enhance these capabilities with generative AI, offering unique, high-value solutions that big tech may find challenging to compete with. The goal is not to adopt generative AI for its own sake but to address specific needs effectively. While providers are becoming more capable of developing in-house solutions, specialised vendors will continue to play a crucial role in delivering nuanced and impactful AI applications.
Thank you for investing your time in this update, and I wish you a fantastic day ahead! 👋
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About the Author
Vlad joined Signify Research in 2023 as a Senior Market Analyst in the Digital Health team. He brings several years of experience in the consulting industry, having undertaken strategy, planning, and due diligence assignments for governments, operators, and service providers. Vlad holds an MSc degree with distinction in Business with Consulting from the University of Warwick.
About the AI in Healthcare Team
Signify Research’s AI in Healthcare team delivers in-depth market intelligence and insights across a breadth of healthcare technology sectors. Our areas of coverage include medical imaging analysis, clinical IT systems, pharmaceutical and life sciences applications, as well as electronic medical records and broader digital health solutions. Our reports provide a data-centric and global outlook of each market with granular country-level insights. Our research process blends primary data collected from in-depth interviews with healthcare professionals and technology vendors, to provide a balanced and objective view of the market.
About Signify Research
Signify Research provides healthtech market intelligence powered by data that you can trust. We blend insights collected from in-depth interviews with technology vendors and healthcare professionals with sales data reported to us by leading vendors to provide a complete and balanced view of the market trends. Our coverage areas are Medical Imaging, Clinical Care, Digital Health, Diagnostic and Lifesciences and Healthcare IT.
Clients worldwide rely on direct access to our expert Analysts for their opinions on the latest market trends and developments. Our market analysis reports and subscriptions provide data-driven insights that business leaders use to guide strategic decisions. We also offer custom research services for clients who need information that can’t be obtained from our off-the-shelf research products or who require market intelligence tailored to their specific needs.