Tatum Askey
ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) is at the forefront of modern medicine, offering solutions to long-standing challenges across diagnostics, treatment, and drug discovery.
In Spain, this technological revolution is gaining momentum, with several institutions and companies leading the charge.
It comes as no surprise, as Spain has recently become one of the forerunners in global medical research, establishing itself as an international science and technology powerhouse.
Among Spain’s recents achievements are digital hearts used to quickly and cheaply test new treatments, AI models to develop new medicines and robot counsellors to help patients make important medical decisions.
Barcelona leads with virtual hearts
Two Barcelona-based organisations, Elem Biotech and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, have developed a groundbreaking virtual replica of the human heart.
This model can be personalised for individual patients, enabling precise testing of drugs and treatments.
According to Elem’s co-founder Mariano Vazquez: “Nature can be interpreted using mathematics. In the same way you can do human clinical trials, you can test a cohort of digital hearts.”
Elem’s supercomputer achieves in just nine hours what would take a human 57 billion years to calculate, offering faster, cheaper, and more sophisticated medical solutions.
The company’s ultimate ambition is to model the entire human body digitally, opening new possibilities for personalised medicine.
Predicting risk with AI
The Barcelona Supercomputing Centre isn’t stopping at virtual hearts.
The research centre has developed an AI model capable of predicting stroke risk using data from mobile devices.
Photo: BSC
This innovation could significantly improve early intervention and prevention strategies, allowing healthcare providers to identify at-risk individuals and offer timely treatment.
By using the widespread accessibility of mobile technology, this breakthrough represents a major step towards more inclusive and proactive healthcare.
These remote monitoring systems powered by AI allow continuous tracking of patients’ vital signs, enabling timely interventions.
Chatbots and virtual assistants also help patients manage their symptoms more effectively.
Drug discovery and clinical trials
AI is also transforming drug research with Barcelona-based Biorce recently secured €3.5 million to enhance clinical trials using AI, streamlining processes and increasing efficiency.
Photo: Biorce
Developing new drugs has become notoriously slow and expensive, and rising costs and tighter regulations have slowed development to a crawl.
AI offers a way to reverse that trend, ensuring life-saving new treatments reach patients faster. Biorce’s AI model ‘Jarvis’ will reduce costs and shorten timeframes for drug development.
It achieves this by helping patients find and understand the requirements for relevant clinical trials, while aiding researchers in the search for eligible participants.
The AI database is a user-friendly solution including over 480,000 clinical trials, streamlining the research process so that effective treatments can be identified sooner.
AI in healthcare counselling
At a clinical level, AI platforms are being used to provide specialised healthcare guidance through apps like 1Doc3.
Photo: 1Doc3
The development provides Spanish-speaking users with AI-driven healthcare guidance, allowing millions to make informed medical decisions.
Powered by AI, the system is able to streamline healthcare by performing basic symptom assessment, triage and pre-diagnosis before connecting the patient to a doctor.
This enables patients who may not normally have access to a physical clinic get the help they need.
Enhancing diagnostics and imaging
AI-powered algorithms are also revolutionising diagnostics. For example, AI tools match or surpass human experts in analysing medical images like X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs.
Photo: Cordon Press
These technologies enhance accuracy in detecting conditions such as pneumonia and skin cancers, significantly improving diagnostic efficiency.
Beyond clinical applications, AI is streamlining healthcare administration by managing electronic health records, scheduling, and reducing paperwork, thus taking some of the burden from already stretched healthcare systems.
Ethical and practical challenges
Despite AI’s potential, ethical concerns and regulatory hurdles remain challenging.
Data privacy, ethical considerations, and the need for robust human oversight are some of the issues researchers are working to overcome.
Moreover, models like ChatGPT, while promising, are not yet suitable for direct medical use. Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Stanford University highlight significant gaps between AI’s performance in standardised tests and real-world scenarios.
The Assessment and Validation of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare frameworks (EVIAS) aims to address these issues within Spain, ensuring AI algorithms meet efficacy and safety standards before deployment in clinical practice.
The future of AI in medicine
Combining human expertise and AI will create a healthcare system that is smarter, more efficient, and tailored to individual needs.
Pioneering initiatives in Barcelona showcase AI’s potential to revolutionise healthcare while addressing critical challenges through frameworks like EVIAS.
As AI technology continues to advance, its influence on medical practice is set to grow, offering innovative solutions to emerging global healthcare issues such as aging populations and resource constraints.
By streamlining processes and optimising outcomes, AI could help ease the pressures on overstretched healthcare systems worldwide.
