The Russian Ministry of Digital Development considers providing AI developers with access to anonymized medical data of Russian citizens. As reported by business daily Kommersant, patients’ data could be used by companies working on AI-based solutions for disease diagnosis or prediction, as well as for epidemiological purposes.
AI developers would be connected to a special repository of medical images and electronic medical records.
The medical data would be collected in the unified healthcare information system called ‘EGISZ,’ which is a key component of a state program to digitalize the healthcare system. Under plans, 82% of the country’s medical organizations should be covered EGISZ by the end of this year.
As much as 32 billion rubles (some $420 million at the current exchange rate) are to be spent on this healthcare digitalization program in 2021-2023.
In spite of the possibilities offered by EGISZ, experts interviewed by Kommersant express doubts that medical data could be collected and used as easily as considered for AI purposes. For the moment, medical data is not being collected or treated in a unified way in the country; in particular, the private sector of Russian clinics are not connected yet to the state information system.
Source: Kommersant (1, 2) via ICT Moscow
