AI is already being used for tasks such as image analysis, predictive analytics, patient monitoring and automated surgery. But in the near future, AI could also help doctors diagnose serious illnesses more easily and become an important tool for improving mental health care.

Fehmi Ben Abdesslem is a senior researcher in Artificial Intelligence at RISE. He has 20 years' experience as a data science researcher, working with many different types of data to generate new knowledge, particularly using machine learning.

"There are many potential benefits of using AI in medicine and healthcare, such as improving diagnostic accuracy and developing personalised treatment plans. AI can also be used as a tool for early detection of diseases and to improve efficiency in clinical settings," says Fehmi Ben Abdesslem.

Personalised care through AI

The development of AI has opened the door to new ways of conducting research studies. Image recognition, for example, has taken a giant leap forward in the last decade. Thanks to deep learning techniques, computers can now recognise objects with very high accuracy (see fact box).

Another area where AI can become a force for innovation – and perhaps ultimately help save lives – is mental health.

"For example, by allowing AI to sift through large amounts of data, doctors can get important clues about the type of medicine or therapy best suited to a patient, which could lead to a faster recovery. Because AI can be trained on huge amounts of data, we also hope that machine learning can be used to prevent suicide," says Fehmi.

A collaboration between Psykiatri Sydväst, Region Stockholm and RISE is investigating whether AI can improve cognitive behavioural therapy at the individual level. Using data from thousands of patients, AI will help a therapist assess the impact of therapy on the patient, with the aim of making it easier to individualise therapy early in the course of treatment. In addition, the team hopes that AI will be able to identify which patients may need more help after therapy.

Another example is a collaboration between RISE and the Faculty of Brain Sciences at UCL (University College London) in the UK, which used AI to compare the individual effects of different types of psychotropic drugs for bipolar disorder, using data from Sweden, the US, the UK, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

"At the moment, we don't know why one drug works better than another. By building machine learning models, we are investigating whether AI can recommend which drug is best for a person based on their specific condition."

We aim to build long-term relationships and collaborations that can make a difference to people's health and well-being.

Fighting suicide with AI

In the near future, machine learning will hopefully also become a tool for predicting suicide.

"800,000 people around the world take their own lives every year. What if data on their DNA could give us clues about risk factors and, in the long run, prevent suicide?," says Fehmi Ben Abdesslem.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Karolinska Institutet, the Department of Genetics at the University of North Carolina and RISE have launched a joint project to create the world's largest collection of data on suicide. The aim is to be able to identify genetic and environmental risk factors for suicide for prevention purposes.

The idea is to let AI sift through a huge amount of data, with instructions to look for all kinds of environmental variables and genetic variants and risks that can be linked to suicide.

"Previous studies have shown that our DNA may play a role in increasing the risk of suicide. Since we take a blood sample from all citizens when they are born in Sweden, we have a unique DNA database that can be used to advance suicide prevention research worldwide," says Fehmi Ben Abdesslem.

Addressing ethical issues

In order to develop a more digitalised, preventive and personalised healthcare system, many factors need to be ensured. There are several ethical challenges, such as how to obtain consent from individuals, how to counteract algorithmic bias, and how best to protect patient privacy.

Access to high-quality data is a crucial piece of the puzzle, but logistics in the form of continuous monitoring and updating of AI systems also need to be in place to scale up the safe use of AI.

Fehmi stresses the need for more use cases and more research. Interdisciplinary collaboration between different parties is crucial for the way forward.

"We are looking for long-term relationships and collaborations that can make a difference to people's health and well-being," says Fehmi Ben Abdesslem.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Sweden was characterised by its ingenious industries, which gave us solutions that fundamentally changed society. More than a hundred years later, we can still boast of our ingenuity. The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) ranks Sweden as one of the two most innovative nations in the world. Statistics show that we have the most unicorns - companies worth a billion dollars or more - per capita.

"If Silicon Valley were a city, it would be first and Stockholm second. We have a very vibrant start-up and scale-up scene in Sweden and especially in Stockholm," says Henrik Bagewitz, Head of Marketing at RISE.

Swedish start-ups are developing innovative solutions for energy storage, creating breakthrough medicines and exploring new technologies to feed a growing world population. In short, these are companies with disruptive ideas. Some of these companies have been taken under the wing of the Sting incubator. And Sting, which has been voted the best incubator in the world, has joined forces with RISE.  

"We and RISE share a common 'why'; like us, they want to help innovation succeed and get to market faster. Both Sting and RISE work with heavy technology and deep tech. We also share a very clear focus on sustainability, particularly the planetary aspect of sustainability. We saw that by working with RISE we could strengthen our offering to our Climate Tech companies," says Karin Ruiz, CEO at Sting.

"Difficult to find the right funding tools" 

An important part of the collaboration revolves around so-called soft funding, i.e. public support and grants.  

"The Sting companies are sitting on private funds that we can use when it comes to the next stage of development. Every private krona can be converted into two development crowns with the help of the public support system. This way we can inject more capital into the companies," says Leif Lyckebäck, a business developer at RISE with a special focus on innovative start-up and scale-up companies.

According to Leif Lyckebäck, many companies make the mistake of applying for the wrong type of grant, or submit incomplete applications that do not go all the way.

"There is a lot of public funding and national funding from the Swedish Energy Agency, Vinnova and similar organisations. But it can be difficult to find the right funding instruments for your company. That is why we are available to advise the Sting companies and other companies that want to work with RISE in their development. We can ensure that the application meets the criteria, and where the companies themselves have capacity gaps, we can provide expertise and test and demonstration environments," he says.   

Bridging the gap between idea and full commercialisation 

The Sting companies working with RISE are primarily in the climate tech sector, using technology to address climate challenges, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to the green transition. One example is CelluXtreme, which has developed a new bio-based composite material.

"In addition to providing answers to major societal challenges, this type of company has the potential to create a large share of Sweden's jobs and export earnings. RISE acts as a bridge between the idea and full commercialisation, where we reduce the risk and shorten the time to market. It's all about facilitating the development process," says Henrik Bagewitz.  

Over the past two years, he and Leif Lyckebäck have had meetings with more than 400 companies. This has resulted in almost SEK 400 million in funding for about 100 of the companies. About the same number have used RISE's test and demonstration environments and experts.  

"Many of our companies need to test completely new materials, while others want to take their product from laboratory scale to the next level. Having access to RISE's infrastructure is very valuable," says Karin Ruiz.  

Building infrastructure for small and medium enterprises 

RISE's 130 or so test and demonstration facilities are constantly evolving to meet new needs.  

"We are constantly trying to improve the position of our test and demonstration infrastructure. If we take the battery sector as an example, it is a market that is exploding. In order to be relevant, we need to invest in both people and infrastructure. It would not be possible for each individual player to build up this kind of capability," says Henrik Bagewitz.

Collaboration with incubators such as Sting is crucial for getting close to innovative companies. The aim is to play a central role in the innovation system, bringing together different interests for sustainable transition and increased competitiveness - and to complement incubators that share the vision of saving the world through innovative companies.

"If the companies that have the greatest impact on climate and humanity succeed, we all succeed," says Leif Lyckebäck.