Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Volume 594 Issue 7862, 10 June 2021

Swarm learning

A key element of precision medicine is rapid and reliable detection of patients who have a severe illness. Machine learning can help to achieve this, but implementing an effective system that maintains appropriate data confidentially is a challenge. In this week’s issue, Joachim Schultze and his colleagues show that swarm learning — a decentralized AI approach that unites edge computing, blockchain-based peer-to-peer networking and coordination — can be used to tackle the problem. The researchers used swarm learning to develop disease classifiers for leukaemia, COVID-19 and tuberculosis based on 16,400 blood transcriptomes and 95,000 chest X-rays. The classifiers outperformed those developed at individual medical facilities while fulfilling confidentiality regulations. The team notes that the distributed nature of swarm learning coupled with blockchain technology enables it to make use of large data sets without compromising on confidentiality.

Cover image: Concept: Stefanie Warnat-Herresthal/Matthias Becker; Design: Laura Lopez & Gianna Jaconelli (TBT Marketing Limited)/Stefanie Warnat-Herresthal.

This Week

Top of page ⤴

News in Focus

Top of page ⤴

Books & Arts

Top of page ⤴

Opinion

Top of page ⤴

Work

Top of page ⤴

Research

Top of page ⤴

Nature Outlook

  • Around 25,000 people die every day from ischaemic heart disease, making it by far the world’s biggest killer.

    Nature Outlook
Top of page ⤴
Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Quick links