From global pandemics to health worker shortages, the world is facing growing challenges that call for the game-changing capabilities that only AI can offer. Indeed, AI offers the greatest opportunity to transform health systems worldwide from being reactive, to being proactive, predictive, and even preventive.
Importantly, AI is not just a promise for the future. It is already having a real-world impact on healthcare. For example Reimagining Global Health through Artificial Intelligence: The Roadmap to AI Maturity showcases Rwanda’s AI-enabled virtual health consulting service, which surged past two million users (one-third of the adult population) in May 2020, and hospitals in India that are using AI to accurately predict a patient’s risk of a heart attack seven years before it might happen.
However, it is essential for governments to act now to ensure they have the enabling environment necessary to realize the full potential of AI to improve the health of their entire population. The Novartis Foundation works with governments around the world to help shape the policy needed for safe, effective and inclusive integration of AI into health and care.
