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Microsoft launches a $40M initiative to

solve global health challenges with AI
Published on February 4, 2020

Michael Spencer
1,019 articles
Content futurist at The Last Futurist

We know Google, Apple and Amazon are getting into healthcare, but we sometimes
forget so is Microso .

AI innovation is healthcare is happening in many companies today in 2020. Pharma

companies too are building AI labs much like Banks built blockchain labs years ago.
Harnessing the power of AI to transform healthcare comes in so many ways in the
2020s.

Microso in January, 2020 announced a new five-year project that will focus on
enabling faster medical research innovations, protecting against global health
crises and improving access to care.

While the likes of Bill Gates has worried of a pandemic like potentially the Wuhan
coronavirus could become, for years, this new five-year outgrowth of Microso ʼs AI
for Good program aims to help apply the benefits of AI with an eye to bettering the
health of the less fortunate worldwide. If this isn't an AI for good program, I don't
know what is and in an era of ESG investment, it's great to see Microso using its
diversified business model and AI talent for positive benefits.

The new initiative will focus on direct research in the medical AI field, global
health studies and improving access. Algorithms are becoming more relevant to
research, diagnosis, patient care and reducing healthcare costs with aging
populations. Machine intelligence can be harnessed to help improve the quality of
our lives. Messaging
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A er Microso 's AI for Earth, Accessibility, Humanitarian Action and Cultural

Heritage: this next phase is a $40 million fi h program pillar aimed at empowering
researchers and organizations to address challenges in health: AI for Health.

I really respect how Microso frames its 3-pronged core focus of this program:

Quest for discovery: Accelerating medical research to advance prevention,

diagnoses and treatment of diseases.

Global health insights: Increasing our shared understanding of mortality and

longevity to protect against global health crises.

Health equity: Reducing health inequity and improving access to care for
underserved populations.

Microso says AI for Health – which is part of its $165 million AI for Good initiative
– will help researchers, nonprofits and healthcare organizations around the world
deploy with leading edge technologies of the above three service areas.

Artificial Intelligence for Good

So how does it work? Microso will provide grants, data science experts,
technology, and other resources to help partner organizations tackle health
projects under the initiative.

Check out the blog post by John Kahan here.

AI for Health Program

“I saw firsthand, both personally and

professionally, how you can marry artificial
intelligence and medical research to advance
this field,” Kahan said. “I saw because I lost
my first son, and only son, to SIDS and I saw
our head of data science partner with leading
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research institutes around the world. Today,

based on their work, they now estimate that
22 percent of the deaths from SIDS are
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attributed to smoking.”

AI for Health is a philanthropic initiative that complements Microso 's broader

work in Microso Healthcare.

Through AI for Health, Microso will support specific nonprofits and academic
collaboration with Microso ʼs leading data scientists, access to best-in-class AI
tools and cloud computing, and select cash grants.

From my perspective it's essential that Big Tech becomes the leader in AI for good
movements, building new kinds of partnerships, grants and stimulating
researching all the while improving healthcare broadly speaking to reduce
healthcare inequality and improve access to healthcare services all over the world.

Kahan points out that modern healthcare is incredibly unevenly distributed,

coming near eliminating some diseases and forms of death in some countries,
while others are ravaged by the same.

Thatʼs not exactly a problem that AI can solve, but there are things that it can do. AI
will be able to implement new tools and solutions to improve healthcare in some of
the parts of the world that need it the most!

The company noted a few partnerships that will benefit from the new program,
with medical research outfits looking into

SIDS,

Leprosy,

Diabetic retinopathy,

Tuberculosis,

Maternal mortality and also importantly

Cancer.

The era of AI improving healthcare is really just beginning and as the 2020s begin I
find myself somewhat obsessed about it.

Brave New World of AI in Healthcare

Microso isn't the only company working on tech solutions to unlock the potential
in health care data by migrating it to the cloud. Cloud growth by Amazon and
Google also is ushering in new opportunities. Apple's work with wearables and
Health app - integrating with certain health systems to make the process seamless
is also very promising. Messaging
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Several themes emerge at the convergence of healthcare and technology. The Try Premium Free
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explosion of data, incredible advances in computational biology, genomics and
medical imaging have created vast amounts of data well beyond the ability of
humans to comprehend.

We are on the cusp of an age of biotech and AI's marriage and access to healthcare
data we never previously had and a Big Data system that can optimize efficiency.

I'm bullish on how Microso 's has the unique opportunity to transform healthcare.

The collaboration between Novartis and Microso also I believe will evolve into
something quite significant. Novartis now has an AI innovation Lab.

What else can AI do in healthcare? In an era when even many Americans don't have
affordable access to healthcare, we need to do better. AI can be the bridge to better,
cheap and more personalized healthcare services.

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Published by
Michael Spencer 1,019 articles Follow
Content futurist at The Last Futurist
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michael burton
Internet marketer affiliate marketing and other projects

It will never solve anything but take people's jobs man has trillions of dollars at diseases for decades 6h
still barely scratching the surface, and ai is going to solve problems? Not , not one disease has never
been cured not one. Only the medical problems will be solved is the one who created us almighty
God Jehovah thru his son Jesus Christ. Man was in perfect health at one time till he committed that
ulterment sin , which we all inherited when born. This is the reason why we die because of inherited
…see more
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