Success Story
Topazium: AI for More Human-Centered Care
By José Luis Diez, independent consultant and advisor in information technology, digital transformation, and digital health; business angel for startups.
The company incorporates machine learning mechanisms to identify, for each patient’s profile, the combination of foods and ingredients that can best contribute to a healthy life.
The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on healthcare has been widely discussed. While AI is being increasingly applied in daily activities, healthcare remains a critical and sensitive area due to the nature of the information and the complexity of medical decisions. Expectations surrounding AI’s potential to improve healthcare are high, and its adoption continues to grow steadily. In this context, Topazium, a spaniard HealthTech startup, emerges as a perfect example of how AI can be effectively applied in healthcare. Topazium focuses on leveraging AI while maintaining a strong human-centered approach that enables healthcare professionals to focus on providing added value to patients.
Innovative Solutions for Personalized Care
Topazium was recognized in 2023 with the Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Technologies Award from the Madrid City Council for its solution HealthGuard. This AI tool analyzes specific physiological parameters of patients to provide personalized nutritional recommendations that promote healthy lifestyle habits. The process seems straightforward, but the key lies in how Topazium analyzes problems and develops solutions. Using clinical data from various sources, including smartwatches, Topazium extracts critical user characteristics to determine personalized nutritional patterns. HealthGuard has a vast database of foods and ingredients, breaking down their basic chemical components and analyzing 13 therapeutic categories—from analgesic to hypoglycemic effects. The tool ranks the bioactive effects of foods and identifies which components are responsible for each effect. The AI system then goes beyond simply listing foods—it suggests optimized recipes that combine the most beneficial components for the patient based on scientific evidence.
From Nutrition to Early Detection of Skin Cancer
Topazium’s innovation does not stop there. Its initiative SkinGuard won first prize at the IoT World Congress. This solution focuses on the early detection of skin cancer, using AI to analyze clinical inputs such as photographs of skin lesions. SkinGuard boasts an impressive 90% global diagnostic accuracy and 95% accuracy for melanoma -a disease with over 1.5 million new cases annually and a mortality rate of 57,000 deaths per year. This tool classifies pigmented skin lesions into nine types using a dataset of over 60,000 biopsy-certified images from diverse sources. The system processes a simple photograph, transforms it into data, and applies AI algorithms to diagnose and classify the lesions. This application is valuable for mass screening campaigns, primary care consultations, and telemedicine practices, while still requiring final confirmation from dermatologists.
From “Black Box” to Actionable Algorithms
What sets Topazium apart is its ability to transform clinical and physiological data -regardless of origin or format- into actionable insights through specialized algorithms. By combining the expertise of data engineers and healthcare professionals, Topazium defines the algorithmic functions based on scientific evidence to ensure reliability and accuracy. The same framework is applied across their solutions, from nutritional guidance to early cancer detection, enabling the generation of predictive and generative models tailored to individual needs.
B2B Approach and Scientific Rigor
Topazium’s solutions are designed with a B2B (Business-to-Business) approach, targeting healthcare organizations rather than patients directly. This ensures that professionals fully understand and interpret the system’s outputs, which would otherwise be challenging for non-specialists. Furthermore, by applying scientific evidence and involving healthcare professionals in the development of algorithms, Topazium helps reduce clinical variability, ultimately improving the quality of care.
The Future of AI in Healthcare
Artificial intelligence is undeniably transforming medical practice. While repetitive tasks are increasingly automated, freeing up professionals to focus on patient care, AI also supports more creative and patient-centric activities. Topazium’s solutions align perfectly with this evolution, enhancing efficiency in healthcare delivery. By automating routine functions, AI allows healthcare professionals to focus on value-added tasks, fostering more human-centered, compassionate care. With innovations like HealthGuard and SkinGuard, Topazium demonstrates the immense potential of AI to revolutionize healthcare -from prevention and diagnosis to treatment -creating a future where technology and human expertise work seamlessly together to improve patient outcomes.
Read more: https://fundaciongasparcasal.org/revista-digital-e-health-trends-no-8/
