How Asian startups can accelerate AI-led healthcare
Over the last five years we have started to see a number of high-quality teams out of India and Southeast Asia in the AI healthcare space. Early movers are leveraging the ‘Asian advantage’ to build cutting-edge, globally relevant healthcare solutions.
Team Sequoia India & SEA
Published November 4, 2019
Globally, investments in healthcare AI have gone up from $1.6 billion in 2017 to $3 billion in 2018. How can startups leverage this market and help define the role of technologies in this sector?
Mumbai-based Qure.AI was able to train its artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to analyse X-rays and head CT scans, develop two market-ready products, and obtain CE certification in three years, thanks to the India advantage.
AI healthcare companies need access to millions of patient records in order to develop an algorithm that knows what healthy looks like and can detect when something’s wrong. Qure.AI’s ability to collect six million images with patient consent in India in short order, played a key role in getting from concept to market in 36 months – a feat that would be hard for a startup to pull off in the US.
The advent of AI opens up many new possibilities in how the medical field thinks about patient care. In large and emerging markets like India, where doctors are in severely short supply, AI will help enhance the quality of patient care by automating tasks like reading diagnostic images, providing real leverage to doctors, especially in smaller towns.
In developed markets like the US that are struggling to bring down the cost of healthcare, AI’s ability to prompt timely interventions will both improve outcomes and reduce overall treatment costs.