The market size of AI applications for healthcare was US$19.2 billion in 2023, and DIGITIMES Research estimates that the market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35.8% to reach US$159.7 billion in 2030. Taiwan's AI healthcare market was NT$360 million (US$11.32 million) in 2023 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.3% to reach NT$1.12 billion in 2030, according to DIGITIMES Research's latest report covering the AI healthcare market.
Geographically, North America is the biggest market, accounting for nearly 50% of the global AI healthcare market, followed by Europe in second place, and the Asia-Pacific region in third. However, due to increases in population, healthcare costs, and government investments in healthcare infrastructure, the Asia-Pacific region is the fastest-growing region in the AI healthcare market, the report's figures show.
What motivates a medical sector to leverage AI applications depends on the amount of data it has to handle, the prevalence, and R&D efficiency. In terms of data volume, medical imaging accounts for the largest amount of medical data, so AI is most widely used in medical image analysis at present.
Due to the high prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and the high mortality rate of cancer, cardiovascular-related applications – such as electrocardiogram analysis – and tumor image interpretation have become popular areas for AI applications. AI-enabled drug development is another area that is getting a lot of attention. The use of AI technology can significantly shorten drug development time and costs, and significantly improve R&D efficiency.
From the lists of AI/ML medical devices approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA), we can see that the number of AI medical devices has grown rapidly in recent years, with radiological applications accounting for the big portion. With the support of government policies in Taiwan, medical institutions have also cooperated with technology companies or even formed startup companies to invest in the development of AI medical software. Technology companies such as Acer Medical and Inventec are among them.
