Longenesis and Neuromation announced a partnership this week to build a healthcare data marketplace using blockchain and artificial intelligence. Alex Zhavoronkov, chief scientific officer at Longene
Longenesis and Neuromation announced a partnership this week to build a healthcare data marketplace using blockchain and artificial intelligence.
Alex Zhavoronkov, chief scientific officer at Longenesis, said the partnership works on two levels. "First, we'll train the deep neural networks we need processing power and we are looking to repurpose the cryptocurrency mining equipment to do that. Second, to generate synthetic data, we must train on large data sets of real-world data and have balanced and diverse data sets. Neuromation is an obvious consumer of data and can be a part of the marketplace," Zhavoronkov explained.
He described the strategic fit: "The primary aim of Longenesis is to create a global data marketplace that will help provide personalized but at the same time secure data for healthcare application developers. Hence, the missions of Neuromation and Longenesis are perfectly complementary to each other."
Longenesis operates a blockchain-based marketplace for medical records. Individuals store, control, and monetize their data, including blood test results, genetic profiles, medical histories, and other sensitive health information. BitFury Group and Insilico Medicine launched the platform in 2017.
Neuromation, an Estonian startup, built a distributed computing platform for generating deep learning applications and synthetic datasets. Users can create datasets and train models, or buy and sell existing ones through the network. In January, the company raised more than $70 million through an ICO, according to Coinist, making it one of the year's largest. Neuromation has won multiple awards and maintains partnerships with OSA Hybrid Platform and Let's Enhance.
The collaboration will provide healthcare and medical AI researchers with computing power and datasets to develop AI models. "By announcing this partnership, we are laying the foundation for the future world of individualized healthcare based on AI," Zhavoronkov said.
Healthcare AI deploys algorithms and software that replicate human reasoning when processing medical data. As the volume of healthcare data grows, these applications expand alongside it. Frost & Sullivan found that healthcare AI grew at a 40 percent annual rate. The firm projects global revenue from AI systems will reach $6.7 billion by 2021, compared to $811 million in 2015.
IBM's Institute for Business Value found in its study "Healthcare Rallies for Blockchain" that healthcare executives expect commercial blockchain solutions to scale within the coming years.
