Those who know AI will do much Better – Prof. M. Akbar Chaudhry.
HCPs will have to learn and adopt its use in medical education,
research and healthcare-Dr. Ashfaq Khokhar
LAHORE: Artificial Intelligence is not going to replace physicians but it will facilitate the doctors and those who know AI will do much better. Healthcare professionals will have to learn and adopt its use in medial education, research and delivery of healthcare. This was stated by Prof. Muhamad Akbar Chaudhry Dean Clinical studies at Superior University. He was making concluding remarks at the pre-Conference workshop on “Revolutionizing Healthcare: Harnessing the Power of AI for improved Medial Practices” held at Superior University Campus on March 6th 2024. Prof. Ashfaq A. Khokhar facilitated the workshop online from USA while Prof. Zahid Latif was the local coordinator. The International Medical Conference held from March 4th to March 28th 2024, it may be mentioned here was jointly organized by Superior University and University of Lahore in collaboration with Pakistan Association of Medical and Dental Institutions. (PAMI). The Theme of the conference was “Use of AI in Medicine and Dentistry: Navigating the Future”.
Artificial Intelligence, Prof. Akbar Chaudhry further stated has taken the world with storm. Medical institutions need to expose the faculty to AI which has its good and bad points. One has to be mindful if its advantage and disadvantages. It will help in diagnosis, screening of patients, relocate the images, will be helpful in history taking. Telemedicine is very helpful and using AI and information technology, there is much one can accomplish ensuring judicious and intelligent use of the available resources. However, there are some social and ethical issues involved. The regulatory boards being established will look into all these aspects. Empathy and human touch are extremely important which these modern gadgets cannot provide, hence has their own limitations, he remarked.
Earlier Dr. Ashfaq Khokar in his presentation stated that surgeons will have to re-learn looking at camera and using their hands and master this coordination. We can improve healthcare a lot by using Telemedicine. If properly used one can see, examine patient at a distance. However, one has to ensure confidentiality and privacy. Ensuring confidentiality will remain a challenge. He made it clear that data belongs to the patient. Now various gadgets have been developed which help in examining and managing patients through Telemedicine and they are being increasingly used all over the world.
No patient information can be seen by anyone other than the doctor who had examined the patient. Each member of the healthcare team will have to inform each other in case of multidisciplinary team practice. Regulations are going to be there to monitor the use of AI and it will not take away the doctor-patient relationship. Instead it will be helpful. AI will assist the physicians and prove helpful. However, he made it clear that it will all depend on how the healthcare professionals utilize this technology.AI is being increasingly used in medical research, scientific writing and its use can be checked using different software’s like TurnitIn and iThenticate. He further stated that doctors must be included while making any intervention. AI will just assist and wont write the prescriptions. The presentation was followed by Hands on experience of examining the patient. Different gadgets used in Telemedicine while managing patients were also shown to the participants and their use was also demonstrated.
