3 Trends In Healthcare Guided By AI And The Companies Behind The Innovation

Artificial intelligence (AI) is on the cusp of transforming nearly every single industry. When it comes to healthcare, several trends have emerged. 

As doctors and scientists continue to innovate, the market for AI in healthcare is expanding. The AI healthcare market appears poised for growth, with a market size of $22 billion in 2023 – a number that's expected to accelerate at a CAGR of 36.4% from 2024-2030. The market for AI in healthcare is expected to reach $187.95 billion by 2030, demonstrating the transformative shift it's brought to the healthcare industry.

AI-focused healthcare companies are driving this progress. 

Here is how three healthcare companies are harnessing AI's capabilities, using technology to drive innovation, target treatments and increase access to healthcare. 

Driving Innovation 

The rapidly growing field of AI in healthcare is already coming to life at places like the Mayo Clinic, where several AI-powered medical and surgical improvements have validated new approaches to clinical care in cardiovascular medicine, neurology, oncology, radiology and other fields of medicine. 

AI is replacing repetitive, manual processes – such as patient data analysis – that slow down healthcare professionals. Moving forward, this new technology will drive innovation, executives at Moderna MRNA said after inking a partnership with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, in April. 

The move gave about 3,000 Moderna employees access to ChatGPT Enterprise, built on OpenAI's most advanced language model, GPT-4, the Wall Street Journal reports. Moderna anticipates the integration of AI could lead to the introduction of 15 new products by 2029, the Cambridge, Mass., company said.

Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel envisions employees using ChatGPT at least 20 times a day to "reinvent all of Moderna’s business processes," leading to greater overall efficiency. Here's one example. 

When developing medicines, researchers study the biological and genetic variations that cause diseases to develop. Utilizing AI to dissect medical data sets like lab results can help scientists fill in the missing pieces. AI can assist them in figuring out the root cause of the disease, helping get much-needed treatments to patients faster. 

AI can lift success rates to up to 50% while reducing a drug's time-to-market, a recent Moderna study by Harvard University's Digital Data Design Institute found. 

AI is already transforming Moderna and enhancing its value-creation process. The company's position in AI-powered innovation is leading to more efficiency and scalability across the value chain due in large part to an AI-centric culture. 

As of October 2023, nearly 65% of Moderna employees were active AI users. They have used the tool in multiple specific functions, from customized support to meaningful improvements in workflow efficiency and efficacy.

Moderna has plans to integrate AI into all aspects of the drug development life cycle. To that end, the company has launched the Moderna AI Academy to accelerate training on AI throughout the organization.

Targeted Treatments 

In addition to advancing drug discovery, artificial intelligence is also helping treatments reach patients faster. 

The past decade has seen an explosion in the amount of health data available to doctors. Organizing and analyzing this much data in a timely manner, however, can be a complex and time-consuming task for the human mind, no matter how capable or intelligent the person. That's where AI comes in. 

AI is enabling researchers to develop more targeted medicines, driving progress in the field of precision medicine. This trend was part of a presentation delivered by executives at Johnson & Johnson JNJ, who hosted a panel discussion about AI's role in transforming healthcare at this year's South by Southwest conference. They touched on many topics, from AI applications in drug discovery to its ability to assist doctors during clinical trials. 

When it comes to running clinical trials, one of the biggest challenges is quickly and efficiently recruiting and enrolling patients who meet the selection criteria. 

By applying AI technology to the early stages of a clinical trial, Johnson & Johnson researchers can use large anonymized datasets to identify and locate clinical research sites with patients who could potentially benefit from the Johnson & Johnson medicines that are being studied. 

From there, the clinical trial operations team can work to determine the likelihood of enrolling the newly identified sites into their trials.

"Historically, many clinical trials have largely taken place at major academic medical centers, but we know that not all patients have access to these centers," said Nicole Turner, Senior Director of Global Development, Data Science & Digital Health and R&D at Janssen Pharmaceuticals. "Our goal is to leverage the power of AI to bring trials to more patients, rather than waiting for patients to come to us."

According to The Wall Street Journal, Johnson & Johnson continues to make investments – to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars – in AI and data science. 

The company has hired about 6,000 data science and digital experts and opened a new research facility near San Francisco, and company executives say AI will power the company's drug discovery work and strengthen its pharmaceuticals business in the future. 

Increasing Access 

Across the country, there is a need for more accessible and systemic healthcare solutions. One company is responding by using AI to combat cardiovascular diseases globally while committing to health equity and access.

AI algorithms can effectively handle and analyze extensive medical data, including DNA biomarkers such as epigenetic and genetic information. As such, the shift to digital health and AI-driven diagnostics could also have widespread impacts on the cardiovascular detection, care and management industry, helping increase access to healthcare in a timely manner across the board – especially helping underserved communities in the process. 

Cardio Diagnostics CDIO, an artificial intelligence-powered precision cardiovascular medicine company that makes cardiovascular disease prevention and detection more precise, was formed to improve patient outcomes by developing and commercializing clinical tests that leverage AI-driven technology to combat cardiovascular disease. 

The company is behind PrecisionCHD^TM, the first integrated genetic-epigenetic test for the detection of coronary heart disease (CHD), the most common type of heart disease and the cause of most heart attacks. With the introduction of PrecisionCHD, clinicians are armed with a powerful, scalable and non-invasive alternative that comes in the form of a blood-based test that uses AI, along with personalized genetic and epigenetic information, to sensitively detect the presence of CHD and use the information for more personalized patient management.

Cardio Diagnostics has also developed Epi+Gen CHD^TM, a powerful test that predicts the three-year risk for a CHD event, mainly a heart attack. Powered by AI-driven integrated genetics-epigenetics, the tool enables more effective decision-making and earlier interventions.

Traditional diagnostic methods for CHD, often inaccessible due to the need for specialized infrastructure, can be invasive and sometimes require exposure to ionizing radiation. Additionally, some of the tests are not sensitive to all forms of CHD and can be very costly, resulting in millions of Americans left without adequate and potentially lifesaving cardiac care. Thanks to AI, PrecisionCHD has armed clinicians with a powerful, scalable and non-invasive alternative that comes in the form of a blood-based test. 

For rural communities where access to specialized medical facilities is limited, the implications of this advancement are particularly relevant. With only a simple blood draw needed to complete a test, PrecisionCHD offers patients in underserved areas access to state-of-the-art cardiac assessments.

PrecisionCHD can be administered in primary care or telemedicine settings, significantly reducing the need for patients to travel to distant specialized clinics. This level of availability, marking a step forward toward mitigating healthcare disparities, would not be possible without AI. 

Featured photo by CDC on Unsplash.

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