The world around us is undergoing a massive digital transformation, revealing artificial intelligence as a powerful system of tools and processes to generate, store, manage and utilise data in novel ways and to integrate inputs from a myriad of players all at once. This feat is expediting the ways through which we generate solutions to our current challenges. One recent example is the way in which clinical research has been done throughout the COVID pandemic, delivering new vaccines faster than ever before.
Yet so much more can and should be done to exploit the phenomenal potential that artificial intelligence features. The European Union has been investing in derisking the advancement of artificial intelligence in health from a variety of angles. One of the better-known ways or tools is to fund frontier research at the level of individual projects.
But there are also other ways to trigger novel developments and real advances in artificial intelligence and health that can benefit society. Here below I will discuss two interesting types of European Union funding instruments supporting the creation of new networks and supporting new companies.
The first one is to help create new networks of key players (knowledge generators and knowledge users) around one common strategic goal, through instruments like the Coordination and Support Actions. Let me show you these 6 examples below:Ā two finished projects (Clinnova and IC-Health) and threeĀ ongoing ones (DiHECO, DigitalHealthEurope, and IDIH).
IC-Health : Improving digital health literacy in Europe. This project focused on co-creating 35 Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to enhance EU citizensā skills on how to search, understand and appraise online health information. The project targeted five different population cohorts: children, adolescents, pregnant and lactating women, the elderly and citizens affected or susceptible to be affected by diabetes.Ā https://scanbalt.org/scanbalt-news/ic-health-massive-open-online-courses-moocs-to-help-improve-the-digital-health-literacy-of-european-citizens-available/
DiHECO : Digital Healthcare ECOosystem research and innovation capability building. This project focuses on the creation of a multi-sided platform for facilitating the organisation of digital healthcare services, but without taking ownership of those services (somewhat similar to what UBER and AirB&B do). The project is coordinated by Kauno Technologijos Universitetas in Lithuania. https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/952012/fr
DigitalHealthEurope : Support to a Digital Health and Care Innovation initiative in the context of Digital Single Market strategy. This project supports key EU policy priorities supporting healthcare in the Digital Single Market and citizen empowerment, in issues such as citizensā secure access to health data across borders, managing better data to advance research, disease prevention and personalised healthcare. The project has published a series of good practices on the MAFEIP website, created a twinning marketplace to foster links across partners, and made recommendations for the European Health Data Space. https://digitalhealtheurope.eu/resources/mafeip/
IDIH : International Digital Health Collaboration for Preventive, Integrated, Independent and Inclusive Living. This project aims to promote international cooperation to advance digital health in the EU and 5 key strategic countries (USA, Canada, China, Japan and South Korea) to support active and healthy ageing through innovation. This forum has four thematic groups: Preventive care, Integrated care, Independent and connected living and Inclusive living. https://idih-global.eu/
Another way to foster research and innovation in health and artificial intelligence is to support entrepreneurs and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Let me show you 4 examples below:
CONCILIO : Development of a global, inclusive, digital health concierge. This grant funded a digital health company that delivered evidence-based, peer-referrals in each medical field to help patients anywhere identify the best specialist. The project was based on a previous proof of concept with over 15,000 doctor names across 9 specialities. https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/761753/fr
Glucostratus : Bringing the benefits of interactive digital health to the care of elderly persons with diabetes. This project carried out a feasibility study to bring digital health to the care of elderly persons with diabetes. By means of a smart blood glucose meter sending data to the cloud platform, both healthcare professionals and patients could access data and take early action accordingly. https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/816000/it
IDH ā Digital Health Hub Europe. This grant supported a feasibility study around the readiness of the Digital Life Sciences āAccessā model and how it could develop in a number of EU healthcare markets. https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/672499/fr
MEDIKURA: Digital Infrastructure for Drug Safety in Europe. This project developed an operating system for patient safety, enabling pharma companies to capture, enrich, and analyse drug-related data provided by patients and doctors and thus save costs, deliver more targeted therapies and accelerate data-driven drug discovery. https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/827483/fr
In research policy, choosing the adequate instrument to trigger action is essential. Now that it finishes, Horizon 2020 has provided a gigantic ecosystem of options for researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs and societal players to select modalities of making advances in a myriad disciplines that impact our daily lives.
In health research, there have been some truly promising results leveraging on artificial intelligence solutions. Many more will surely emerge in the coming months, not only derived from the last calls of Horizon 2020 but also the first ones to be published by its successor programme starting in 2021: Horizon Europe.
Stay tuned š