Five AI Healthcare Startups Bringing Us Closer to Cures

Clinical Informatics tells us that: "Every year in the U.S., approximately 2 million patients participate in roughly 3000 clinical trials; six million patients are needed to meet U.S. recruitment goals. Consequently, up to 90% of trials are delayed or over budget". Experts blame the lack of data available - to both patients and researchers - to explain why only 5% of cancer patients, for example, end up enrolling in clinical trials. A study from Carnegie Mellon University and Albert Ludwig University in Germany predicts that "AI could cut the cost of drug discovery by about 70%" and Krishna Yeshwant, general partner at Google Ventures, estimates "AI would cut (clinical trial) costs by 90 percent." Artificial intelligence seems like the perfect solution, but Zikria Syed writes in MedCityNews that "clinical trial technologies haven't changed much since the current categories -- clinical trial management systems, electronic data capture, and interactive voice response, -- were established in the late 1990s." A recent Deloitte study also that tells us "a number of clinical trial activities still use the same processes as in the 1990s." In a sector that is usually at the forefront of technology – biotechnology - it is hard to believe this is happening. I spoke to six innovators who were tackling the massive problem head on – scientists and entrepreneurs working to bring clinical trials to the people who need them – to find out what they are doing to solve the serious innovation problem. The list of people is impressive for the diversity of solutions they're offering to clinical trials: Anna Huyghues-Despointes, Head of Strategy, Owkin; Simon Smith, Chief Growth Officer, BenchSci; Leila Pirhaji, Founder & CEO, ReviveMed; Shai Shen-Orr, Founder, Cytoreason; and Daniel Jamieson, CEO Biorelate and Gunjan Bhardwaj, Founder & CEO, Innoplexus. Additionally we spoke to consultant Dr. Chrysanthi Ainali, Co-Founder Dignosis and Instructor for the KNect365 Learning Course AI & Real World Evidence for Clinical Trials to ask her thoughts on the specific challenges AI startups in clinical trials face. "Healthcare brings great challenges for a technology company. It is inherently conservative and risk averse - Hippocratic Oath: 'first, do no harm'" says Simon Smith, Chief Growth Officer at Benchsci.