106 FEATURE From soaring costs to staff shortages, increasing wait times and regulatory pressures, healthcare providers face multiple operational challenges. However, generative AI, cloud and data solutions are helping them to deliver faster, more cost-efficient and more accurate care, says Microsoft’s Dr. David Rhew BY REBECCA GIBSON with Every year, millions of people around the world undergo detailed and time-consuming examinations to assess the health and functionality of their eyes. But what if AI could rapidly identify multiple medical conditions that extend beyond the eye from a single retinal image? Topcon, which manufactures the optical equipment used by most of the world’s eye specialists, has now made that a reality. Topcon’s Harmony platform runs on Microsoft Azure and enables AI models to evaluate retinal images “for diabetic retinopathy and potentially several other conditions, including cardiometabolic, neurovascular and ophthalmologic disorders,” says Dr. David Rhew, global chief medical officer and vice president of healthcare at Microsoft. Topcon’s solution makes the diagnostic process “fast, fully automated and inexpensive”, says Rhew, adding that the AI models for detecting diabetic retinopathy have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. “Several sites across the USA have deployed this approach and it has the potential to be most impactful for individuals living in rural and underserved communities.” This is just one example of how human healthcare specialists are augmenting their work with AI and cloud technology. From disease screening to analysing test results, developing new precision medicines, automating administrative tasks and personalising patient experiences – these technologies provide insights into vast volumes of multimodal data, allowing healthcare organisations to transform the way they deliver care to the public. “During the pandemic, we observed that one of the most successful approaches to delivering care across large populations involved connecting public health with community-based organisations humans Pairing AIbetter for healthcare
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