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New report: Significant inequality in regions' AI efforts in healthcare

Tuesday, April 8, 2025

179 initiatives in artificial intelligence (AI) have been identified in Swedish healthcare. The majority of the initiatives are in diagnostics and management and administration. However, there are significant differences between the regions. The five most active account for over 60 percent of all initiatives. This is according to AI Sweden's new mapping, Vårdkartan. The purpose of the mapping is to strengthen AI application and promote innovation in healthcare in Sweden by identifying opportunities for collaboration and exchange of experience between regions, researchers, and companies.

Vårdkartan report showing Sweden map and text.

AI Sweden report preview: Vårdkartan, a map of AI initiatives in Swedish healthcare. Download report (Swedish).

The rapid technological development in AI has not yet had a broad impact in healthcare. Of the 179 mapped initiatives, only 24 (13 percent) have been fully implemented. This relatively low percentage suggests that AI applications in healthcare are still in an early stage.

Lorna Bartram

The pace needs to increase if we want high-quality welfare that can meet future challenges. There is currently a large disparity between the regions' AI work, which is made visible thanks to Vårdkartan. With this mapping, the regions, healthcare providers, and decision-makers also receive an important decision-making basis for clearer national guidelines and more collaboration between the regions to accelerate the application of AI in healthcare and thereby improve the quality of healthcare as a whole.

Lorna Bartram

Lorna Bartram

AI Transformation Strategist - Healthcare

Healthcare faces major challenges in the coming years. According to the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SKR), the number of people aged 80 or older is expected to increase by almost 50 percent by 2031. At the same time, the demand for personnel in healthcare is expected to increase by almost ten percent, also according to SKR's calculations.

Focus on diagnostics and administrative processes

The mapping has been conducted by AI Sweden, Sweden's national centre for applied AI, in collaboration with Halmstad University. 

Most AI initiatives are in diagnostics and prediction, accounting for 41 percent of all identified initiatives. This is in line with global trends where AI is being used for imaging diagnostics, for example for the interpretation of X-ray and MRI images.

Another major area is initiatives to manage and streamline administrative processes - 30 percent of initiatives concern management and planning. This includes, for example, support for text-based tasks such as medical record writing, masking of sensitive data, and support for scheduling.

In summary, the results show that AI in Swedish healthcare is currently mainly in data-driven specialities such as radiology and pathology and for administrative purposes. In contrast, application in primary care, psychiatry and prevention is limited, despite the fact that these areas have great potential to benefit from AI to improve early detection, prioritisation and care planning.

Large differences between regions

The regions in Sweden with the most initiatives are Västra Götaland Region, Region Halland, Region Skåne, Region Östergötland, and Region Stockholm. These five account for over 60 percent of all AI initiatives in the country.

Markus Lingman

Success in AI requires competence, data, perseverance, and support from central management. We have built that over a long period in Region Halland. The work has meant that we were able to implement AI products early in the operation, starting with image diagnostics, but also use AI in business analysis for optimization of patient flows and other things. In addition, we can conduct AI-supported research on real data to learn more about, for example, patient risks. The combination is powerful.

Markus Lingman

Markus Lingman

Professor, Specialist Physician in Cardiology and Management Strategist in Region Halland

The large differences risk affecting equality in healthcare. Therefore, efforts are needed at the national level to ensure that we can realize the value of AI in healthcare and ensure that no one is left behind.

“Vårdkartan contributes to an understanding of which regions and healthcare providers have already come a long way – now we need to continue investing and create incentives to spread successful solutions and working methods to more. Collaboration and collective investments are key here. It is also of great importance that healthcare can receive clear national guidelines on specific central challenges linked to patient safety and the application of relevant legislation that currently hinders innovation and application,” says Lorna Bartram.  

Vårdkartan is intended to be a dynamic resource that is continuously updated with new AI initiatives. The goal is to make it easier for actors in healthcare to gain insight into ongoing initiatives and create opportunities for collaboration and exchange of experience.

Explore the map at vardkartan.ai.se and read the conclusions in the report (only avaliable in Swedish).

Results

  • The mapping identified a total of 179 AI initiatives in 17 Swedish regions
  • Five regions account for 62 percent of AI initiatives
  • 41 percent of all identified initiatives are in diagnostics and prediction
  • 30 percent of initiatives are in management and planning
  • 13 percent of the initiatives have been implemented in the healthcare system
Map of Sweden with colored circles indicating locations.

About Vårdkartan

Vårdkartan is a survey of AI initiatives in healthcare in Sweden's regions.

The data collection took place between June and December 2024. In total, 17 of Sweden's 21 regions responded to the self-reporting, resulting in a collection of 179 initiatives. 

The compilation of the results was carried out by researchers at the Academy of Health and Welfare at Halmstad University in collaboration with representatives from AI Sweden.

The visualization has been performed by Datastory.

A mock-up laptop where you can see an interaction with Vårdkartan
 

For more information, contact:

Lorna Bartram
Lorna Bartram
AI Transformation Strategist - Healthcare
+46 (0)70-635 71 01
Portrait of Daniel Wahlström, AI Sweden
Daniel Wahlström
PR Manager
+46 (0)70-408 40 95

The development of "Vårdkartan" (The AI healthcare map) has been made possible through co-financing from the European Regional Development Fund under the project "Increased national collaboration for accelerated use of AI in all industries" as well as co-financing from Vinnova through the projects "Information-driven healthcare" and "Use Case Factory".

EU flag with text Co-funded by the European Union
Logotype in green: VINNOVA Sweden's Innovation Agency

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