AI In Healthcare Highlights & Milestones 2021

In 2021 the application of AI enabled advances in many areas of healthcare. We made significant progress in AI for drug discovery, medical imaging, diagnostics, pathology, and clinical trials. Important peer reviewed papers were published and dozens of partnerships were formed. Big Pharma companies and major tech companies became very active in the space. Record amounts of funding were raised, and a few companies even started human clinical trials. Microsoft and NVIDIA launched two of the world's most powerful supercomputers and Microsoft announced Azure OpenAI Service. In 2022 we expect these technologies to converge across the healthcare spectrum. This article summarizes milestones achieved in 2021. This is the first in a series of progress reports I'm writing on the sector that will be supplemented by industry performance data and metrics compiled in partnership with Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare (AAIH) and other top tier resources.