This morning computer hardware company Nvidia announced that it was teaming up with Scripps Research Translational Institute to kick off a new collaboration focused on developing artificial intelligence and deep learning tools that will help analyze genomic and digital health sensor data. In addition to the tools developed, the partners plan on creating a new best practice resource guide.
The pair will be focused on three main areas of implemented AI technology: disease prevention, health promotion and streamlining biomedical research efforts. In the beginning, the research teams will be zeroing in on how deep learning-based genetic and digital sensing can predict atrial fibrillation. Eventually the team plans to expand to other diseases and data sets.
Why it matters
While AI has become a popular buzzword in the world of health and tech, its uses in the space are still evolving. In a statement Nvidia explains that it has already been using the technology in the medical imaging space for sometime, but there is still a lot of room to explore within genomics and sensor data.
The pair say the end goal is to help improve clinical outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.
“AI has tremendous promise to transform the future of medicine,” Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of Scripps Research Translational Institute and professor at Scripps Research, said in a statement. “With NVIDIA, we aim to establish a center of excellence for artificial intelligence in genomics and digital sensors, with the ultimate goal of developing best practices, tools and AI infrastructure for broader adoption and application by the biomedical research community.
The trend
Over the last year Nvidia has been diving deeper into the world of AI and healthcare. In March the company revealed plans for a new AI platform called Clara, which uses AI to create a virtual medical imaging platform.
Then at the beginning of the month Nvidia made an announcement that it is partnering with King’s College London to deploy the Clara platform as well as Nvidia’s DGX-2.
“This is a huge opportunity to transform patient outcomes by applying the extraordinary capabilities of AI to ultimately make diagnoses earlier and more accurately than in the past,” Professor Sebastien Ourselin, head of the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences at Kings College London, said in a statement. “This partnership will combine our expertise in medical imaging and health records with NVIDIA’s technology to improve patient care across the UK.”
Nvidia has actually had its foothold in healthcare for sometime now. For nearly a decade it has been involved in medical imaging and partnering with big names in the healthcare industry like Massachusetts General Hospital and the Mayo Clinic.
On the record
“AI is already transforming healthcare by using electronic health records and medical imaging to better diagnose and treat disease,” Kimberly Powell, vice president of healthcare at Nvidia, said in a statement. “Our collaboration with Scripps expands these opportunities by tapping into the rapid accessibility of genomic and digital wearable data, and furthers the quest to better predict and prevent disease.”
