Sergei Zhdanov, director of the Sberbank Health Industry Center, spoke at the National Health Congress about the current fit of artificial intelligence in medical practice. He described the most suitable stage for integrating AI technologies into routine clinical work as having arrived in Russia, where doctors can leverage these tools to enhance daily tasks and patient care.
According to him, modern AI-powered systems assist clinicians with everyday responsibilities, supporting the analysis of text data and the interpretation of visual research. This enables more efficient monitoring of personal health and the health of loved ones, fitting naturally into the workflow of people who want to stay informed about their own medical status.
Zhdanov noted that digitalization makes medicine more accessible, including in remote areas. A central driver of this improvement is telemedicine, which is actively advanced through the SberHealth service, expanding reach and reducing barriers to care for people far from major medical centers.
He highlighted Sber’s ongoing healthcare initiatives, emphasizing the development and deployment of new, in-demand solutions for the medical sector. These include remote patient monitoring, advanced analysis of medical images, and AI-based decision support for clinicians. The aim is to deliver health services more efficiently while also broadening offerings related to wellness and preventive care.
As a practical demonstration, the director presented the Smart Health Camera to attendees. This device allows individuals to perform self-checks and securely share results with their physicians for evaluation and guidance.
Its capabilities include capturing high-quality photos or videos of the throat, nose, ears, and skin. The camera syncs with the SberHealth mobile app, sending these visual records to a physician who can assess the footage and provide recommendations for next steps in care.
The Smart Health Camera has been released in two versions, one for adults and one for children shaped like a giraffe, and it is now available in major markets. It has been showcased at prominent events such as the international exhibition at VDNKh and within the Sberbank pavilion at the Russia forum, signaling a broad adoption trajectory.
Zhdanov cautioned that individual engagement in personal health matters remains a key determinant of impact. If people lack awareness or motivation to participate in health decisions, outcomes can suffer and life expectancy may be affected. He stressed that raising medical literacy and encouraging preventive lifestyles are crucial to reducing the need for medical interventions over time.
Looking ahead, he suggested that personal AI assistants could become common, integrating the wide range of digital health services into a single, cohesive platform. Such an ecosystem would analyze large-scale medical data to identify priority groups for screening, thereby lightening the load on primary care services and enabling more proactive, data-driven care.