The aim of the newly established Centre for AI Innovation at Karolinska Institutet is to support and expedite the development of AI innovations in healthcare. “While AI has huge potential, there are many factors to take into account before AI solutions can become practicable,” says the centre’s director Johanna Furuhjelm.
The Centre for AI Innovation establishes a lasting commitment to capturing the benefits of AI for KI as an organisation, and for partners including Region Stockholm and Karolinska University Hospital.
The Centre for AI Innovation will also serve as a link to similar initiatives in Sweden and around the world. The centre’s director is Johanna Furuhjelm, who is also project coordinator of the Swedish node of TEF Health, a five-year EU project designed to promote innovation and the implementation of AI solutions in healthcare.
“AI has huge potential in terms of providing quality care to more people and making healthcare more scalable and distributed,” says Johanna Furuhjelm. “At the same time, implementing AI solutions isn’t so easy. There are many regulatory hurdles to overcome and many factors to take into account before AI solutions can actually become practicable from a healthcare perspective.”
The centre is the initiative of Daniel Lundqvist, professor of neuroimaging at Karolinska Institutet and director of the Centre for Imaging Research. Professor Lundqvist also leads the Swedish node of TEF Health.
Four important areas
The centre has four main objectives: To promote and support AI research; to promote AI innovations; to promote the utilisation of AI; and to contribute to AI education and teaching.
Some of the staff at the Centre for AI Innovation: Johanna Furuhjelm, Daniel Lundqvist, Päivi Östling, Andreas Gerhardsson, Julie Bianchi, Magnus Boman, Per Lek, Rebecka Rosenberg, Ida Friberger, Igori Comarovschii, Naima Kayser Leeoza, Christoffer Rahm. Photo: Johanna Furuhjelm
In practice, it will be able to offer the testing and validation of AI algorithms on clinical data and to provide support on regulatory matters and on engaging AI innovators with clinical expertise able to assess both the clinical need and how the solution fits into healthcare flows.
The primary aim is to create value for the healthcare sector and, by extension, to the community as a whole.
“We aim to serve as a bridge between research and clinical practice,” says Dr Furuhjelm. “AI research at KI is also quite dispersed. The Centre for AI Innovation stands as a central hub that enables us to support each other while providing a clear point of entrance for external national and international partners.”
The centre currently comprises an operative team of 20 or so, including individuals from SciLifeLab. There is also a steering committee for more strategic matters.
“It’s on this broad-based expertise that we’ll thrive and ensure that we can create robust support structures that will remain even after the conclusion of TEF Health,” she says.
Receive the Funding Newswire [full access requires a subscription] each Tuesday, our Policy Bulletin each Thursday, and news about bridging Europe’s east-west innovation gap twice a month in The Widening. 
A unique international forum for public research organisations and companies to connect their external engagement with strategic interests around their R&D system.