Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) collaborated with the Hospital Authority (HA) for the first time to organise the AI Challenge to provide innovators with a co-creation opportunity to develop AI-related solutions to address industry needs.
Under the theme of “Identifying Surgical Instrument”, contestants were required to devise machine learning models to identify, locate and count surgical instruments going into and out of hospitals’ operating theatres in the competition.
The performance of different AI models was evaluated according to the pre-defined Performance Metrics. This contest attracted more than 50 entries from local and overseas tech companies, of which 11 finalists were selected to submit their AI models. On top of receiving multi-cloud credits, the top teams were connected with HA to explore collaboration opportunities in the development of smart hospital solutions to enhance the quality of medical services in Hong Kong.
The winner of the event was a member of HKSTP’s Science and Technology Entrepreneur (STEP) Programme and AI PLUG. They beat other finalists to be crowned the overall champion and the winner in ‘Localisation Accuracy’ and ‘Classification Accuracy’.
Meanwhile, Dr Crystal Fok, Director at the AIR Platform and Precision Engineering, HKSTP presented a certificate to an IT support services provider in Hong Kong which got the overall first runner-up in the Challenge. Another member of HKSTP’s Incu-Tech Programme and AI PLUG was the overall second runner-up and came first in ‘Counting Accuracy’.
According to recent market research, Artificial intelligence (AI) in the drug discovery market is expected to gain market growth in the forecast period of 2020 to 2027. Research by a leading market analysis firm found that the sector is expected to account to US$3,932.87 million by 2027 growing at a CAGR of 40.5% in the above-mentioned forecast period.
The growing awareness amongst physicians and patients regarding the benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been directly impacting the growth of the market.
Increasing need to reduce cost and drug discovery along with reducing time, growth of pharmaceutical industries by collaborations with other industries, adoption of cloud-based services and applications, delay in patent expiry are some of the factors that will enhance the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) in drug discovery market in the forecast period of 2020-2027.
On the other hand, the expansion of biotechnology industries will further create new and ample opportunities for the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) in the drug discovery market in the above-mentioned forecast period. Unavailability of skilled labour and lack of data sets are acting as market challenges for the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) in drug discovery in the above-mentioned forecast period.
Another article noted that the hunt for new medicines has often been more like a game of roulette than high-end science. But now the pharmaceutical sector is on the cusp of a transformation, as it delves into cutting-edge technology to come up with new treatments for diseases such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer’s.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to improve the industry’s success rates and speed up drug discovery, potentially saving it billions of dollars, according to a recent survey by a global analytics firm. AI topped a list of technologies seen as having the greatest impact on the sector this year. Almost 100 partnerships have been struck between AI specialists and large pharma companies for drug discovery since 2015.
The Director of the Centre for Health Solutions at a leading accounting and consultancy group stated that drug discovery is being transformed through the use of AI, which is reducing the time it takes to mine the vast amounts of scientific data to enable a better understanding of disease mechanisms and identify new potential drug candidates.
