Top 10 Healthcare Artificial Intelligence News Of 2021

As 2021 is about to wrap up, we are reflecting on some of the most important news revolving around artificial intelligence (A.I.) in healthcare. These […]

Pranavsingh Dhunnoo
Pranavsingh Dhunnoo

8 min | 14 December 2021

As 2021 is about to wrap up, we are reflecting on some of the most important news revolving around artificial intelligence (A.I.) in healthcare. These range from the principles laying the groundwork for the safe and effective development of A.I.-powered medical devices to a sober look at the technology’s role in the pandemic. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the top 10 healthcare A.I. news of the year that was.


1. The FDA’s list of AI/ML-enabled medical devices marketed in the U.S.

In September 2020, The Medical Futurist Institute (TMFI) had its first research published in the prestigious npj Digital Medicine journal. In it, the authors called for making information on credible A.I.-based medical tools available. By using the FDA as an example, they pioneered the first open access, online database of FDA-approved A.I.-based algorithms, a resource that the U.S.-based regulatory body should have come up with already.

FDA-approved A.I.-based algorithms
The first open access, online database of FDA-approved A.I.-based algorithms

Thankfully, it seems like the researchers’ call were noticed and heeded to. About a year later, the FDA publicly released its own list of A.I./machine learning (ML)-enabled medical devices marketed in the United States. This represents an important milestone from the FDA, which took the lead in regulating A.I.-based medical devices. Moreover, they cited TMFI’s database as a publicly available resource.

2. Principles for Good Machine Learning Practice laid out

The next important piece of news in healthcare A.I. comes from a joint effort between the FDA, Health Canada, and the U.K’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). In October, they laid out the 10 guiding principles that can inform the development of Good Machine Learning Practice (GMLP). 

The latter aims to “help promote safe, effective, and high-quality medical devices that use A.I./ML”. The regulatory bodies expect international standards organisations and collaborative bodies to build upon those foundational principles to advance GML.

3. The potential sale of IBM’s Watson Health arm

According to a February report from the Wall Street Journal, IBM could part ways with its Watson Health arm. After having spent years developing the branch and having heavily invested into it, it comes as a surprise that IBM is abandoning these efforts altogether.

IBM Watson in healthcare
Source: www.time.com

In addition to Watson Health’s previous challenges and negative press, other factors led to the decision. Even if the unit brings in around $1 billion in annual revenue, the WSJ’s sources say that it isn’t thought of as being currently profitable. The report also notes that exploring a sale might be “in part because physicians were hesitant to adopt artificial intelligence.”

4. DeepMind working on the mother of all A.I. algorithms

In October, VentureBeat reported that Google’s DeepMind is “developing one algorithm to rule them all”. More specifically, the company is working on a new deep learning model with the ability to emulate any algorithm that can work with real-world data.

While their work is not immediately healthcare related, it is only a matter of time before this is the case, given the potentials of this new model. It could enable building an algorithm that can scan through the entire process of care with digitised data; and then create sub-algorithms for improving the flaws it could discover in the system.

5. Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Health launched at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai 

An interesting development emerged from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: the launch of its Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Health. It’s the first such department within a medical school and has two main goals.

Its first aim involves training healthcare scientists to employ healthcare A.I. Secondly, it aims to establish an A.I. framework across its medical departments. To that end, the new department will also promote collaboration between medical and computer scientists as their work intersects within the digital health field.

6. Alphabet’s new A.I.-powered drug discovery company

Google’s life science branch, Alphabet, took some interest in A.I.-powered drug discovery and launched a new company to focus on such efforts. Named Isomorphic Laboratories, it will leverage DeepMind’s A.I. work on predicting protein structure. From the latter, the new company will work on developing new models that can predict the interaction of drugs with the human body. 

With a growing number of companies using A.I. in drug discovery, it will be interesting to witness what Isomorphic Laboratories, aided by Google’s resources, can come up with.

7. An A.I. dermatology assistant from Google

Google is also leveraging its A.I. expertise in the consumer-facing space. The tech giant introduced its A.I.-powered dermatology app in May. In addition to providing patients with insights into their skin lesions, the app also helps dermatologists and non-specialists better interpret skin conditions. It only requires an appropriate photograph using a phone and having it assessed via the dedicated URL or app. Such a tool can be beneficial in low-resource areas or where dermatologists are not easily accessible.

Emerging Trend Alert – Skin Checking Algorithms
Skin Checking Algorithms

8. Guide to photographing skin of color accurately in clinical settings

It’s not only Google that is investing in A.I.-enabled dermatology apps but a host of startups have also launched similar tools. However, their usability often does not take into consideration darker-skinned patients. This can result in worse quality of care for this demographic.

Dermatologist Jenna Lester experienced this issue with her patients and set out to address the issue. She co-authored a paper in the British Journal of Dermatology that acts as a guide to accurately take pictures of skin of colour for monitoring in clinical settings.

9. A.I. tool to assist in COVID-19 treatment selection

Help might be underway from A.I. to help select drugs to treat patients with COVID-19 complications. Researchers from Emory University and Georgia Tech developed the MOATAI-VIR algorithm which can suggest FDA-approved drugs that could be considered to treat these. The scientists also postulate that their A.I. tool could be applied to future viral outbreaks as well.

10. Predictive tools haven’t made a real difference in the fight against COVID

While the news shared so far has been optimistic about healthcare A.I., the last one on the list provides a more sober look at its assistance in fighting against COVID-19. While several hundreds of predictive tools were developed for this purpose, studies conclude that they have nevertheless not made a significant difference.

The U.K.’s Turing Institute published a report in June summarising a series of workshops it held on the matter. It found little impact of A.I. tools in fighting the pandemic. Similarly, a study that reviewed over 200 algorithms for diagnosis and prognosis of COVID-19 found that almost none of them were fit for clinical use being at high risk of bias. Another systematic review of over 400 ML tools used for similar purposes on radiology images could not identify any for potential clinical use. They attributed the findings to methodological flaws and/or underlying biases in those models.

But while these observations might not be uplifting, A.I.’s potential in fighting a disease like SARS-CoV-2 cannot be denied and over time, we can have better-trained models that are better suited for medical use.

artificial intelligence and COVID

And this marks a wrap on our top healthcare A.I. news of 2021! We hope they served as a good refresher and will get you excited about the evolution of the field. If you have come across other exciting developments during 2021, do share them with us!

Written by Dr. Bertalan Meskó & Dr. Pranavsingh Dhunnoo

At The Medical Futurist, we are building a community for making a bold vision about the future of healthcare reality today.

If you’d like to support this mission, we invite you to join The Medical Futurist Patreon Community. A community of empowered patients, future-oriented healthcare professionals, concerned health policymakers, sensible health tech developers, and enthusiastic medical students. If there were ever a time to join us, it is now. Every contribution, however big or small, powers our research and sustains our future.

Click here to support The Medical Futurist from as little as $3 – it only takes a minute. Thank you.

 

Subscribe

Get the week's top news shaping
the future of medicine