The greatest real-life benefit of artificial intelligence in healthcare today is seen in radiology and image analysis. It is crucial to use certified medical software and to understand how it was created—it's not a "black box." Experience from the Czech Republic shows that AI is already speeding up stroke diagnostics and is gradually finding its place in other fields.
Regulation and trust: from MDR to the AI Act
In Europe, medical AI solutions are governed by a combination of MDR certification and the requirements of the Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act). It is a stringent framework that has its rationale, but it also brings costs and the risk of "double" certification; a new "omnibus" amendment softens and postpones some deadlines. If the process is too cumbersome, developers may consider certification outside the EU, as seen in comparisons with the United States or Asia.
Trust, however, is not built through statutes but through transparency and education. Clinics should know who develops the tool, what it was trained on, how explainable and cybersecure it is. In the Czech Republic, a connected ecosystem is emerging among universities, professional societies, the AI association, and the ministries of health and industry; courses and conferences for medical students and physicians showcase already certified solutions ready for practice.
From idea to practice: implementation and results
Deploying AI in a hospital needs a "champion"—a physician or healthcare professional who knows where the tool will help in the workflow. Coordination with management, IT, the legal department, and the data protection officer is essential; public procurement lasting months often follows, and we also run into the fact that few solutions are reimbursed by health insurance. Practice shows that after initial skepticism, a turning point comes: in evaluating MRI in multiple sclerosis, radiologists return to AI after a few months and treat it as a routine tool.
AI has the most visible benefit in acute care. In the Czech Republic, a system is running for evaluating brain CT in stroke: results arrive within two minutes and are delivered to a mobile app; more than 65,000 scans have already been analyzed and 23 of 47 centers use AI. Smartphone ECG analysis (PMcardio) has also proven itself in the field, and wearable technologies such as continuous glucose monitors use AI for insulin dosing. Licenses cost on the order of 10 to 15 thousand euros per year, but if they speed up diagnosis and reduce complications, the investment pays off; predictive risk models are already being tested by foreign insurers, although they are not yet widely available in the Czech Republic.
