KI in der Medizintechnik: Siemens-Healthineers-Chef: „Brauchen keine KI-Strategie“

Siemens Healthineers, a medical technology manufacturer, views artificial intelligence (AI) not as an end goal, but as a useful tool in the pursuit of better medicine. Bernd Montag, the company's CEO, told the German Press Agency that AI will make medical technology more efficient, not necessarily better on its own. "AI is not the endpoint," he said.

"When someone asks me, 'What is your AI strategy?' I say, we don't need one. Because AI is not the endpoint. Instead, I say, we want to defeat cancer. And then we consider on the way to defeating cancer, what role can AI play. But the endpoint is better cancer therapies."

Siemens Healthineers focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of diseases that are primarily responsible for a large number of deaths: cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and strokes. "Health systems are facing not only a problem of affordability, but also a growing problem of not having enough professionals - as we may all know when we need a doctor," Montag said.

The challenge is how to use AI to help and take over certain routines. Good doctors' expertise and skills are irreplaceable. "To make diagnoses better, I need CT images, but also a finding - meaning: What has the radiologist seen in there," Montag explained. "And then I also need the feeling, that was a good radiologist." Only when a curated dataset is available can algorithms be trained with AI.

"We do that, but for that we don't need three billion data points, but good data." Siemens Healthineers has been listed on the DAX, the leading index of Germany's 40 largest listed companies, since 2021. The company is one of the five largest medical technology companies worldwide by revenue and the largest in Europe. Last fiscal year, the group generated more than 23 billion euros in revenue with around 75,000 employees.