Predictive Precision Medicine: Towards the Computational Challenge

The emerging fields of predictive and precision medicine are changing the traditional medical approach to disease and patient. Current discoveries in medicine enable to deepen the comprehension of diseases, whereas the adoption of high-quality methods such as novel imaging techniques (e.g. MRI, PET) and computational approaches (i.e. machine learning) to analyse data allows researchers to have meaningful clinical and statistical information. Indeed, applications of radiology techniques and machine learning algorithms rose in the last years to study neurology, cardiology and oncology conditions. In this chapter, we will provide an overview on predictive precision medicine that uses artificial intelligence to analyse medical images to enhance diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of diseases. In particular, the chapter will focus on neurodegenerative disorders that are one of the main fields of application. Despite some critical issues of this new approach, adopting a patient-centred approach could bring remarkable improvement on individual, social and business level.