Elly Yates-Roberts |
Microsoft has created the Artificial Intelligence Industry Innovation Coalition (AI3C) to drive the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare by providing recommendations, tools and best practices.
Member organisations include The Brookings Institution, Cleveland Clinic, Duke Health, Intermountain Healthcare, Novant Health, Plug and Play, Providence, UC San Diego, and University of Virginia.
“The goal of the newly created AI3C is to establish a pragmatic coalition with public and private organisations to advance health by identifying and addressing significant societal and industry barriers,” said Patty Obermaier, vice president of US health and life sciences at Microsoft. “I am excited about the launch of AI3C and working with its distinguished board as we continue the momentum towards serving the needs of patients and communities through AI innovation.”
According to Microsoft, the AI3C board will work to “create AI solutions for positive societal and healthcare outcomes, identify and set the AI strategy and vision for a variety of projects, and track the success of AI adoption in the industry”.
The coalition will use AI to solve economic and industrial challenges, address digital skills and employability and improve data privacy. It will also accelerate AI innovation and adoption by showcasing emerging AI tools, collating use cases, best practices and research feedback, and preparing students for careers in AI and data science.
“As the role of AI continues to grow in our society and economy, this community of independent scientists would be a conduit between healthcare industry and technology companies, academia, policymakers and the general public, ensuring faster development of AI solutions and smoother adoption of such technologies by end users,” said Niam Yaraghi, non-resident senior fellow at research group The Brookings Institution.
The AI3C will provide advice on a range of AI topics including responsible healthcare innovation, health equity and workforce transformation to reduce clinical fatigue.
“Meeting the urgent need for new health technologies requires diverse partners coming together across sectors,” said Ashley Llorens, vice president and managing director of Microsoft Research and Incubations. “With perspectives from AI practitioners, healthcare professionals and the research community, the AI3C can guide collaborative projects that accelerate the translation of frontier technologies from research to solution development, to implementation.”