医療に応用されるAI（人工知能）の現状と課題 ー IBM「ワトソン」とディープラーニングを中心に

近年、様々な分野に普及しているAI（人工知能）が、ついに私達の健康や命を預かる「医療」の分野にまで進出しようとしている。既にIBMのAIスパコン「ワトソン」が難病患者の命を救ったり、先端AI「ディープラーニング」が画像診断などで専門医に勝るとも劣らない能力を示しつつある。
こうした医療用AIはインドやアフリカのように、膨大な人口の割には医師の数が足りない国や地域で「医療の新たな担い手」として期待されている。また少子高齢化による労働力人口の減少が進む日本でも、特に医師不足が深刻な地方部で、医療用AIの必要性は今後高まっていくであろう。
ただ、こうしたAIは開発段階における使用テスト等では素晴らしい性能を示すが、いざ病院やクリニックなど医療現場で使おうとすると、現場ならではの複雑な使用環境に足を取られて本領を発揮できない。ここに見られるように、実用化に際しての課題も幾つか浮かび上がってきている。
また医療用AIは患者の「カルテ（診療記録）」や「ヘルスケア・データ」などを機械学習することで性能が磨かれるが、これら扱いに細心の注意を要する個人情報の漏洩など、患者のプライバシーが侵害される恐れも指摘されている。
本レポートでは「人の命」という究極の領域に踏み出したAIの現状と課題、リスクなどを探っていく。

In recent years AI (Artificial Intelligence) has been put to use in a wide variety of fields; and as the technology makes inroads into the field of "medical care" it will now start to impact upon our health and wellbeing. IBM's AI supercomputer "Watson" has already saved the lives of patients with intractable diseases, and advanced AI "Deep Learning" is showing an ability comparable to specialists in a number of areas, including in diagnostic imaging. Accordingly, this type of medical AI is expected to become the "new leading force in medical care" in countries and regions where the number of doctors is insufficient for their large populations, such as in India and Africa. Even in Japan, where labor force shrinkage is due to the declining birthrate and aging population, the need for medical AI will increase in the future, especially in rural areas where there is a serious shortage of doctors.
Although such AIs show excellent performance in tests at the development stage, this is challenging to replicate in practice because health care work sites, such as hospitals or clinics, are inherently complex use environments with unique characteristics at each site. Even in these early development stages, there are some emerging challenges in the commercialization phase. Medical AI has the potential to put its machine learning capacity to high performance use with regards to a patient's "medical chart" (medical records), "health care data" and associated data keeping tasks. However, widespread concerns about access to a patient's personal information, particularly the leakage of personal information, require careful attention to ensure that patient confidentiality is maintained. In this report, we will investigate the current situation, challenges, and risks of AI present as it enters this critical domain of "human life."