27.01.21

​MEDTECH: AI IN MEDICINE SERIES

TRANSFORMING HEALTHCARE WITH AI LESSONS FROM OPHTHALMOLOGY

​SPEAKER: DR PEARSE KEANE

Pearse was absolutely fantastic!

I actually took away a lot of information / ideas from this talk. I think this was because the language used was accessible, communicated slowly and ideas were unpacked for us as if it was the first time we were hearing them
​(which for me it was!).

​Thought 1: 

Until this talk, I hadn't made a direct correlation between the brain and computers. Artificial neural networks as computational methods to replace the brain so in essence, neurons = nodes. ​

​Thought 2: 

I was fascinated by the work that Pearse is doing that relies on image recognition;  computers are fed lots and lots of images, training them to recognise certain things. I recently came across the app  Google Quick Draw, it prompts you to draw certain objects and then guesses what you've drawn. It stores the information from each new drawing, uses it to learn and gets better at recognising - the more people interact, the better it becomes. 

​In fact, rather than explain, why not just let you see for yourselves :

quick draw

Thought 3:

​Dr Keane has been doing using OCT scans for the retina (Ultrasounds scans but using lightwaves) to find out all kinds of information about the person such as age and gender etc. I wonder if there's anything the eyes can tell you about a person's mental state? Could MRI scans give us this kind of information about a person?

Thought 4: 

During the talk I was introduced to the term "AI chasm". This is the difficult gap between imagining a prototype and then actually putting it into action in a clinical setting once it has approval. We're talking years (on average around 8!) How can this be navigated? By the time useful technology is developed and in clinical settings, it's already outdated. ​

Thought 5:

When it comes to coding, Pearse had an opposing view to the last talk, believing that experience in this area is not necessary. I've always felt I should learn to code in order to  understand the process, however, I learned today that there are new "drag-and-drop" systems for anyone who wants to have a go at this kind of . This opens up a whole new world of possibilities and makes me feel that I might actually be able to put some of my creative research into action. I must delve deeper into this! TBC...

IMAGE CREDIT:
​SCREENSHOTS FROM DR PEARSE KEANE'S  PRESENTATION

AUTHOR: SARAH