With its unique geography, Greece is an excellent case for the use of technologies that help to have remote access to medical care and indeed the most specialized. Currently a new system with technology Artificial Intelligence of a company set up, founded and developed by European scientists is now in commercial operation in Europe and the United States of America. The capabilities of the European system are utilized by specialists in cardiology and are now being used in the field. “There, in the US and EU, we have our first digital twin solutions while we have more than 140 locations around the world with our technology and more than 5,000 patients have been cared for so far. Artificial Intelligence and health are areas that we can see “working” together and in a great way as there is a lot of data that can be analyzed, data related to the diagnosis of patients with the management and with the treatment of patients.” said speaking to the radio station of APE BEE, “Agency 104.9FM” the Jean Marc Periat (Jean-Marc Peyrat), founder and Chief Technology Officer of the inHEART company. The startup from France, which was even awarded the European award “Connecting Healthcare Public Forces to Innovation”, aims to help the doctor who has a large amount of data at his disposal.

“Artificial Intelligence can help in two ways. The first is to automate different functions, different actions, things that doctors do to save them time, but also to do what they do in a better way than they do today. The second way AI can help is in analyzing massive amounts of data, something a human cannot do alone. It helps the doctor to have new, deeper knowledge of the condition of the patient, the patients, so that he can make better decisions. Our main innovation comes from the collaboration of two different fields, cardiology and radiology, and this collaboration was about better understanding the imaging images to better understand some conditions related to the condition of the heart. In fact, not only to understand better (ie what is happening) but also to be better able to plan and lead some operations regarding the heart. To make this process simpler, faster and more efficient”, explained the European scientist.

According to the European technologist, countries such as Greece are ideal environments for this technology with AI and processing in the cloud of exams. “Although I do not know the health system of Greece completely, with the picture of the remote communities given I can say that our technology could help to have, for example, a remote scan, an x-ray of the patient and become better perception of the patient’s health conditions. That way it will be possible to be able to make a decision based on this technology and these images and their analysis instead of having to send someone to a larger hospital where perhaps the expertise is more local,” he explains.

Faster and better care

The use of Artificial Intelligence, as it has been applied for some time now by the European start-up company, gives results in the field. “With this technology of ours, operations can be done much faster and last, for example, two hours instead of five. We are talking about a 60% reduction in time but we are also talking about an increase in the success rate of these operations by 25%. So we’re talking about lower costs, as well as improving patient care,” explains Mr. Periat, who talks about a combination of technologies. “It is absolutely a solution based on software and cloud technology. A particularly “light” technology for the equipment in terms of the use of infrastructure compared to other such solutions so for example the doctor in the hospital sends the images to the cloud, the digital twin is continuously created and they can use it to design and proceed to implement the operation…” describes the European expert who, when asked, also urges Greek scientists to be optimistic and pursue innovation.

“I started out as a mechanical engineer with a PhD in digital image management and processing, and worked in this industry for quite some time. Then I did an MBA during which I reconnected with some colleagues, people who are in the field of cardiology and radiology. We worked together and got to the point where we wanted to bring our technology to the commercial sector. The first thing I would say to a young Greek scientist is to network, to meet people who are in this space, to talk a lot with different people to understand if there is a real need to use technology in the market. To find that need and see if there is already a solution or there can be a solution to that need. And so it begins…”, explains Mr. Periat. As for whether in the future AI will save lives, the mechanical engineer answers with today: “our own technology is already saving lives, it is commercially available as I said in the US and Europe and more than 5,000 patients have been treated, received care of our technology so far, so yes, we can say technology is saving lives,” he emphatically notes.