{"id":6578,"date":"2026-05-20T16:44:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T14:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ai4healthcro.eu\/?post_type=ht_kb&p=6578"},"modified":"2026-05-20T16:48:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T14:48:45","slug":"making-ai-in-healthcare-safe-useful-and-ready-for-real-world-practice","status":"publish","type":"ht_kb","link":"https:\/\/ai4healthcro.eu\/?ht_kb=making-ai-in-healthcare-safe-useful-and-ready-for-real-world-practice","title":{"rendered":"Making AI in healthcare safe, useful and ready for real-world practice"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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AI is already entering clinical practice, but its success in healthcare will depend less on the technology itself and more on safety, trust, regulation and clear value for patients and doctors.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant concept in medicine. It is already being used in areas such as medical imaging, speech-to-text tools, digital assistants and decision-support systems. Yet healthcare remains one of the most sensitive environments for AI adoption, where innovation must be balanced with patient safety, data protection and clinical responsibility.<\/p>\n

That was the central message of Dr Anja Bare\u0161i\u0107<\/strong>, coordinator of AI4Health.Cro<\/strong> and Head of the Laboratory for Computational Biology and Translational Medicine at the Ru\u0111er Bo\u0161kovi\u0107 Institute, in an interview for Ordinacija.hr<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Dr Bare\u0161i\u0107, the real question for patients is not whether artificial intelligence is involved in a diagnostic or clinical process. What matters is whether the procedure is high quality, safe and effective<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This distinction is important. In healthcare, AI should not be introduced simply because the technology is available. It must support better outcomes, reduce unnecessary workload, improve processes or help clinicians make decisions based on reliable information. Responsibility for those decisions, Dr Bare\u0161i\u0107 emphasised, remains with doctors.<\/p>\n

AI4Health.Cro was created precisely to support this kind of responsible adoption. The project functions as a European Digital Innovation Hub and a public-private partnership bringing together partners from regulation, academia, healthcare, associations, finance and technology. Its role is to act as a one-stop shop<\/strong> for organisations developing or adopting advanced digital solutions in healthcare and medicine, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

For innovators, this means access to expertise, testing, education, networking and support in finding funding. For healthcare institutions, it means help in understanding which solutions are relevant, safe and useful in real clinical settings.<\/p>\n

Dr Bare\u0161i\u0107 pointed out that Croatia has a strong ICT community capable of developing high-quality products, but healthcare can appear difficult to enter because it is highly regulated and governed by strict rules. At the same time, healthcare professionals are often working under increasing pressure, while lacking time and clear guidance on how to assess new digital tools.<\/p>\n

This creates a gap between two communities that need each other. Technology companies need access to clinical knowledge, regulation and real-world testing. Doctors and healthcare institutions need trustworthy tools, education and support in evaluating innovation. AI4Health.Cro\u2019s role is to help close that gap.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest challenges is trust. In the European framework, AI systems must follow the principles of trustworthy AI. This means they must be explainable, understandable and used under human supervision. In medicine, this is especially important because AI systems are often developed with sensitive health data, which must be protected under strict rules.<\/p>\n

AI4Health.Cro addresses this through practical examples and safe testing environments. The project\u2019s hackathons and innovation challenges use anonymised real-world data, allowing teams to develop AI models while learning how to work responsibly with health data. Previous challenges have focused on predicting early rehospitalisation and detecting breast cancer lesions in radiology images. The 2026 challenge focused on adherence among patients with type 2 diabetes.<\/p>\n

These activities do not produce only prototypes. Some teams have gone on to establish startups, publish scientific papers and continue collaboration with clinical institutions. For the healthcare system, such challenges create pilot projects that show how AI can respond to real needs while improving understanding of privacy, data protection and responsible development.<\/p>\n

The interview also highlights that AI is already part of everyday healthcare in Croatia, even if many users are not aware of it. Speech transcription tools are used by doctors, AI supports image interpretation in the national lung cancer early detection programme using low-dose CT, and some clinics are using digital assistants or tools for early detection of neurodevelopmental deviations in newborns.<\/p>\n

Still, Dr Bare\u0161i\u0107 sees some of the greatest short-term potential not in replacing complex medical judgement, but in reducing repetitive work. This includes writing, transcribing and summarising medical records, optimising processes, procurement and work organisation. Only after that comes more direct support in diagnosis, therapy selection and clinical procedures.<\/p>\n

This is a pragmatic view of AI in healthcare. The goal is not to replace doctors, but to reduce administrative pressure, improve access to useful information and help healthcare teams work more effectively.<\/p>\n

Sustainability is also becoming a central part of the AI4Health.Cro story. The current project phase ends in September 2026, but the work will continue through AI4Health.Cro2<\/strong>, starting in October 2026 and running for three years. The goal is to build a centre that can operate independently after EU funding, while continuing to support the healthcare system and the startup community.<\/p>\n

The ambition is clear: AI innovation in healthcare should no longer be treated only as a future possibility, but as part of the present. For that to happen, doctors, patients, innovators and institutions need practical knowledge, examples of good practice, regulatory clarity and access to experts who can guide development.<\/p>\n

For AI4Health.Cro, this is where the work continues, helping Croatia\u2019s healthcare system prepare for new technologies while making sure that AI tools are safe, trustworthy and useful in real clinical life.<\/p>\n

As Dr Bare\u0161i\u0107\u2019s message makes clear, the future of AI in healthcare will not be defined by technology alone. It will be defined by the systems built around it: education, regulation, clinical validation, secure data access and trust.<\/p>\n

In healthcare, the best AI is not the one that attracts the most attention. It is the one that helps make care safer, better and more effective, often without the patient even needing to know it is there.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AI is already entering clinical practice, but its success in healthcare will depend less on the technology itself and more on safety, trust, regulation and clear value for patients and doctors. Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant concept in medicine. It is already being used in areas such as medical imaging, speech-to-text tools, digital …<\/p>\n

Making AI in healthcare safe, useful and ready for real-world practice<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"page-builder","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"ht-kb-category":[30],"ht-kb-tag":[],"class_list":["post-6578","ht_kb","type-ht_kb","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","ht_kb_category-events-and-news-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ai4healthcro.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb\/6578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ai4healthcro.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ai4healthcro.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/ht_kb"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ai4healthcro.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ai4healthcro.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6578"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ai4healthcro.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb\/6578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6584,"href":"https:\/\/ai4healthcro.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb\/6578\/revisions\/6584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ai4healthcro.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ht_kb_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ai4healthcro.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fht-kb-category&post=6578"},{"taxonomy":"ht_kb_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ai4healthcro.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fht-kb-tag&post=6578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}