The global market size of artificial intelligence (AI) in health care will exceed $200 billion, with a growth rate of 40% per year, the Turkish deputy health minister told Anadolu.
Suayip Birinci said that Türkiye is one of the countries “that will have a say” in the market of AI in health care.
He said that Türkiye has been collecting health data for years now, while “many other countries have just begun doing this,” noting the country’s capability in digital health.
Birinci emphasized that Türkiye has a big advantage in developing AI solutions that autonomously work in preventative health applications.
“We need valuable data to make this come true but Türkiye is in a position to develop AI applications that can know how a doctor would approach a disease,” he said.
“We are already ahead of many countries in Europe, and as for integrating citizens into the digital health care ecosystem, these countries that are deemed to be ‘above us’ have as much population as the number of patients one of our hospitals serves in six months,” he added.
Birinci said that Türkiye’s advancements in the field pushed the country ahead of many due to the already existing digitized health data the country collects from citizens.
“Do we still have shortcomings? Yes, we learn as we live. But we have not encountered a digital disaster so far and this is watched with envy by the whole world,” he said.
“The applications we have made are declared 'best practice' in the world and we wish to maintain this status and be ranked first in the world,” he added.
Birinci said that ethical principles must not be violated in this goal.
“The support of many people in the sector and the political institution, as well as the expansion of e-Government apps, make our job very easy—it is a team effort to use these digital systems and manage them, which we have managed successfully, and I hope we continue to do so,” he added.