27 - AI: History channel

In 1665 Micrographia was published by one of the most important scientists in our history – Robert Hooke. For the first time it illustrated the minute details of the natural world only made possible due to Hooke’s adoption and development of the microscope.

In my view, data and AI could prove as transformative as the microscope in our understanding of biology and medical science.

We are now able to uncover trillions of bits and bytes of digital data streamed in real time that become far greater than the sum of their parts.

Think of how much more effectively we could treat diseases like type 2 diabetes, if the data we have at our disposal could uncover exactly where patients are on their own disease pathway and the best treatment for their individual circumstances.

We are working towards a future when clinical decisions are never taken without the best possible information (or close to it).

Advanced data-driven research and medical practice will enable us to see clearer, see further, think smarter and act faster to ultimately save and improve patients’ lives.
Undoubtedly, we’ll be able to radically improve and streamline clinical trials, so patients can access treatments sooner.

Doctors will have access to unprecedented levels of data from those trials, but also wisdom far beyond their own experience made possible by aggregating insight and analysis. This will lead to a generational transformation in the therapeutic journey, and impressive advances in patient outcomes and health equity.

As alluded to earlier, a deeper understanding of each individual patient, down to minute metabolomic or proteomic details, combined with broader contextual factors, will enable us to see further and more clearly.

In Spring 2021, SAS and the University of Cambridge completed a successful collaborative partnership aimed at identifying ways in which the process of selecting kidneys for transplantation could be better delivered. Ultimately, it should mean more kidneys are deemed suitable to transplant than was previously possible, which can not only save lives but improve the quality of life for those that would previously have required dialysis.

The benefits of this collaboration could go well beyond this crucial field of study. It will form part of a future envisaged by Professor Gavin Pettigrew, Professor in Clinical and Experimental Transplantation at the University of Cambridge, when the “state of the art computational neural network technology” we have jointly developed will be “widely adopted, even beyond the UK”.

This potentially transformative step forward is just one example out of hundreds where collaboration on data, digitalisation and AI have great potential to enlighten fields of study.

All of these things are now within our reach. We are at a turning point in the development of biomedical science, parallel to major breakthrough moments in history such as the development of the microscope.

The profound potential of the technology we and other data and analytics leaders are developing is already being realised by organisations such as the University of Cambridge.

With greater collaboration between academics, governments, NGOs, the global pharmaceutical industry and healthcare providers around the world, the possibilities become almost endless.