AI for better health: the Commission launches healthcare flagships under the Apply AI Strategy

The European Commission is launching ambitious initiatives to harness artificial intelligence (AI) for healthcare as part of its Apply AI Strategy, aiming to save lives, improve patient outcomes and strengthen healthcare systems across the EU.

Addressing critical healthcare challenges with AI
Healthcare systems across Europe face mounting pressures from ageing populations, workforce shortages and increasing demand for services. At the same time, AI offers unprecedented opportunities to transform healthcare delivery, from enabling earlier and more accurate diagnoses to easing administrative burdens on healthcare professionals.

The healthcare flagships within the Apply AI Strategy represent a comprehensive approach to accelerating AI adoption in healthcare and pharmaceuticals, addressing key barriers including fragmented data infrastructure, limited AI literacy amongst healthcare professionals and uneven access to innovative tools across Member States.

European AI-powered advanced screening centres
A key initiative concerns the establishment of European AI-powered advanced screening centres to accelerate early detection of cardiovascular diseases and cancer, particularly in underserved areas, ensuring AI-powered screening takes into account gender-specific factors. The centres will facilitate access to high-quality datasets through the European Health Data Space and European digital infrastructures for cancer imaging (Cancer Image Europe) and genomic data (Genomic Data Infrastructure).

European Network of Expertise on AI Deployment in Healthcare
The Commission will also establish a European Network of Expertise on AI Deployment in Healthcare to consolidate best practices and deliver practical deployment playbooks and guidelines, including guidance on testing AI locally and monitoring its performance once in use. The network will help Member States learn from each other's experiences and avoid duplication of effort.

Revolutionising medicine development
AI is transforming medicine development itself. AI-based modelling and simulation can accelerate the discovery of new treatments, reveal additional ways existing medicines – such as new antibiotics – can be used and improve predictions of how safe and effective they will be. The potential is already evident: the number of healthcare-related AI patents published annually in the EU grew 20-fold between 2016 and 2024.

To support AI adoption in medicine development, the Commission will launch an AI drug discovery challenge for potential new drugs addressing unmet medical needs, such as Alzheimer's disease or certain cancers. Winners will receive dedicated access to AI Factories’ computing capacity and advice on bringing discoveries to market. The Commission will also propose actions to streamline market entry for medical devices while maintaining safety.

These healthcare flagships complement existing actions under Europe's Beating Cancer Plan, the Life Sciences Strategy and the forthcoming EU Cardiovascular Health Plan. They will mobilise funding under the Digital Europe Program, EU4Health, Horizon Europe, and the Innovative Health Initiative.

The creation of an Apply AI Alliance and AI Observatory will support implementation of the Strategy by fostering collaboration among stakeholders and monitoring progress across Member States, helping to ensure AI innovation contributes to a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable European health ecosystem.

For more information on the Apply AI Strategy and its flagships, visit https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/apply-ai