Reviewing Federated Machine Learning and Its Use in Diseases Prediction

Machine learning (ML) has succeeded in improving our daily routines by enabling automation and improved decision making in a variety of industries such as healthcare, finance, and transportation, resulting in increased efficiency and production. However, the development and widespread use of this technology has been significantly hampered by concerns about data privacy, confidentiality, and sensitivity, particularly in healthcare and finance. The “data hunger” of ML describes how additional data can increase performance and accuracy, which is why this question arises. Federated learning (FL) has emerged as a technology that helps solve the privacy problem by eliminating the need to send data to a primary server and collect it where it is processed and the model is trained. To maintain privacy and improve model performance, FL shares parameters rather than data during training, in contrast to the typical ML practice of sending user data during model development. Although FL is still in its infancy, there are already applications in various industries such as healthcare, finance, transportation, and others. In addition, 32% of companies have implemented or plan to implement federated learning in the next 12–24 months, according to the latest figures from KPMG, which forecasts an increase in investment in this area from USD 107 million in 2020 to USD 538 million in 2025. In this context, this article reviews federated learning, describes it technically, differentiates it from other technologies, and discusses current FL aggregation algorithms. It also discusses the use of FL in the diagnosis of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. Finally, the problems hindering progress in this area and future strategies to overcome these limitations are discussed in detail.