Digital health

Tools to support diagnosis, analysis of exams, optimisation and personalisation of treatment, screening of biologically active molecules, and more. For 15 years or so, the application of the digital sciences to complex medical data has revolutionised the processing of health data and promises numerous benefits for patients.

For oncologists, the use of modelling and AI may aid the diagnosis of cancer by identifying novel disease markers earlier, by enhancing the precision of surgical procedures and therapies, by simulating the potential impact of treatment based on a patient's genome, and by personalising treatment according to the results obtained. For cardiologists, AI may speed up the analysis of ECGs and thus enable remote patient monitoring. And the diagnostic skills of radiologists will soon be aided by increasingly high-performing AI solutions.

Inria conducts numerous cross-disciplinary research projects on digital health and digital biology, paving the way for start-ups with global reach. One example is Therapixel, whose automated tool for analysing mammographs has already reduced false-positive rates by 5%. It will be released for sale in 2020. The possibilities are exciting. They are also inseparable from the issues of ethics and health data protection, which are incorporated right from the design phase of the technologies on offer ("privacy by design").