A white paper on artificial intelligence (AI) in medical industry was issued in Shanghai this month.

The report was jointly produced by the Artificial Intelligence Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the Shanghai Research Center for Health Development, and the School of Medicine of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

The paper analyzes the hot fields, challenges and future development trends of AI medical research in some of the major countries around the world where AI is being utilized.

It reveals five major application fields, namely medical imaging, auxiliary diagnosis, drug R&D, health management and disease prediction.

Among them, AI-powered medical imaging has become the most mature field of China's AI application in the medical industry, boasting a large market scale, substantial revenue and a favorable financing environment.

Statistics show that 10 of the 2018 top 100 unlisted AI-related companies in China with the highest expected revenue were in the AI medical industry, among which six were engaged in AI-powered medical imaging.

As a research project in Shanghai, the paper also provides suggestions for Shanghai’s development in AI medical industry based on the advantages that the modern metropolis offers.

According to the report, Shanghai would make full use of Zhangjiang Pharma Valley’s core advantages in drug R&D, encourage the cooperative research of pharmaceutical companies with research institutes and hospitals, and use AI technologies to accelerate the high-end, intelligent and international development of the local pharmaceutical industry.

One of the workshops in Zhangjiang Pharma Valley, Shanghai [Photo/WeChat account: zjpark]

Zhangjiang, with the most comprehensive biomedical industry chain in China, has seen many related institutions settle there, such as Pharmacodia, the world’s first structured big data integrated information service platform for pharmaceutical R&D.

AI is now becoming the core driving force of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation. McKinsey, a global consulting firm, has predicted that the global AI medical industry will reach a scale of $25.4 billion by 2025, accounting for about one-fifth of the total value of the global AI market.