Medical imaging has become a new enthusiasm and is expected to attract $2 billion in annual investment by 2023.

A new report from Signify Research shows that the world of medical imaging has recently ushered in a period of high growth and will reach $2 billion a year by 2023.

Although there have been many voices of doubt before, AI has proved its ability, especially in improving the efficiency, accuracy, treatment of different people and better treatment results.

The number of people who need diagnostic medical imaging has been rising, but in many parts of the world, the number of professional doctors is far from enough. This provides a good room for growth in AI medical imaging. The picture shows the trend clearly. Whether it's deep learning or other kinds of AI computer imaging, the world market for AI medical imaging is on the rise. Not only has the market grown dramatically, but AI-based tools are becoming more diverse and sophisticated.

The report also pointed out that while practical applications become widespread and frequent, not only patients, but also people with health risks can benefit. For example, AI can predict stroke, analyze blood pressure, and so on. As a result, insurance investors have also received positive returns.

Although the prospects are good, there are many problems with AI medical imaging.

First, the regulatory process is immature, and there are not many products that are truly mature and commercialized on the market, especially deep algorithms.

Second, more large-scale experiments are needed to consolidate people's confidence in AI algorithms in this area.

Third, IT technology needs to be combined with AI algorithms, so that the results provided by the algorithm become the first contact information for doctors to see a doctor.

Fourth, insurance companies seem to be overwhelmed by the purchase of AI technology, because technology is often tied to special hardware, and to achieve good hardware coverage, or to have a hardware-friendly AI platform, there are many challenges to overcome.

As of now, the market is dominated by startups and companies that focus on medical imaging.

For example, in China, from 2013 to the first half of 2017, there were 86 financings in the medical field, and medical images were intensive, with the highest proportion accounting for 31%. There are 8 angel wheels and 17 A wheels. In December 2017, Tuma Shenwei, founded in the United States, also announced that it has received a B round of 200 million yuan financing from Softbank China, Chende Capital and Delian Capital.

In the interval from 2018 to May, according to the medical network news, there were 14 financings in the medical imaging field, 6 in public disclosure, and the total financing amount was over 800 million yuan. Among them, there is a relatively large amount of Sunshine Independent Medical Imaging Center. In January, B round of financing was 400 million yuan, and the leading investor was Baidu Capital. Secondly, there are Xuanyuan Intelligence and Pushing Technology, which have raised 300 million yuan in the Angel Wheel and C Round respectively.

But according to the report, many amnesties have arrived. Tencent and Ali in China are good examples.

Tencent's "Tencent Shadow" medical solution announced the colorectal tumor screening AI system on July 8. This is the second skill point that Tencent has learned since the early screening of esophageal cancer.

Ali has been in the medical field since a few years ago. From the early Ali Health Intelligence Hospital to the 2017 ET Medical Brain, applications in areas such as AI medical imaging diagnosis are being gradually implemented.

The report predicts that in the next few years, the sum of the research and development of these giant companies will solve the problems that still exist and truly form the business flow of medical imaging. (Editor: Xu Wendao)