Reasons to be hopeful Four ways the world is getting better

: The next four years are set to see rapid progress in the use of : artificial intelligence to better : diagnose serious illnesses such as reverse diabetes lung cancers and brain tumours. Half a billion people worldwide live : hospitals, including several in the : north of England. The systems, : which scan X-rays and prioritise : cases where they spot something : suspicious that the human : Clinician may have missed, have : been shown to improve diagnostic accuracy by 45% and diagnostic : efficiency by 12%, according to the South Tyneside and Sunderland : NHS trust. Robert Booth The world may seem to be in a bad place but there is good news out there.

- Patrick Butler

Stem cell transplants could reverse diabetes Half a billion people worldwide live with diabetes. There are different types with different causes, but all lead people to have too much sugar in their blood. If not well controlled, this excess glucose can inflict damage throughout the body, putting people at risk of gum disease, nerve damage, kidney disease, blindness, amputations, heart attack, stroke and cancer.

A new generation of treatments could reverse the disease. Details of the first woman treated for type 1 diabetes with stem cells taken from her own body were announced last month. Beforehand, the 25-yearold needed substantial amounts of insulin. Now she produces her own. In April, a similar cell transplant allowed a 59-year-old man with type 2 diabetes to come off insulin. It's early days and challenges remain, but the results so far are exciting. Ian Sample

AI will help catch cancers earlier The next four years are set to see rapid progress in the use of artificial intelligence to better diagnose serious illnesses such as lung cancers and brain tumours.