Artificial Intelligence is good but machines lack human touch which is important in patient management

First Pakistan Annual Cardiac Imaging Summit
Artificial Intelligence is good but machines
lack human touch which is important in
patient management
Healthcare professionals should create interest in their
patients and take care of their psyche - Prof. Abdus Samad

KARACHI: Artificial Intelligence is good and helps the healthcare professionals in many ways in diagnosis, screening of patients, their management but machines lack the human touch which is extremely important while managing the patients. This was stated by Prof. Abdus Samad an eminent interventional cardiologist while speaking at the First Annual Pakistan Cardiac Imaging Summit organized by National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases at a local hotel here on May 6th 2023. It attracted imaging specialists and interventional cardiologists, postgraduates, nurses and technicians from all over the country. This was yet another first initiative taken by the NICVD to organize this first ever Summit. Prof. Sabha Bhatti Dept. Head of Cardiac Imaging at NICVD was the Course Director and Organizer.

Continuing Prof. Abdus Samad said that over the past two decades we have seen too much advances in technology. While I was working as House Officer in Mayo Hospital our Professor used to come at 7.00 AM and used to operate till 5.00 PM at times doing over a dozen surgical procedures during the whole day. What now the third generation of surgeons is doing I cannot say much about it. My advice to all healthcare professionals, he went on to say was to create interest in your patients. Artificial Intelligence is good and can be used but don’t depend too much machines and the technology. Doctors are different from other professionals, they must take care of the psyche of the patient. Make your patient comfortable. He also warned that if the doctors did not take care, their image and reputation will suffer tremendously. Hence, they have to uphold professional ethics in their practice.

When we started practice at NICVD many years ago we used to see lot of patients with mitral stenosis and there were hardly any patient suffering from coronary artery disease or angina. We used to depend on our clinical skills in making diagnosis in the absence of these sophisticated high-Tech imaging facilities. He also shared some useful tips on clinical skills while making diagnosis and managing patients. Today during the Summit we have seen some fascinating pathology and fascinating imaging which is not seen in the developed world. He suggested Prof. Sabha Bhatti to keep in touch with Prof. Tajik in USA and share these interesting cases with them. Prof. Zainab Samad, Head Dept. of Medicine at Aga Khan University also suggested that you should start preparing an Atlas and document all these cases which have excellent images and interesting pathology which will be extremely useful for teaching and training as well.

Prof. Nadeem Qamar Director of NICVD in his brief comments commended these academic initiatives by the faculty saying that the future of cardiology was in imaging. Once you make the correct diagnosis, patient management becomes easy and it also ensures patient safety. Prof. Javed Akbar Seyal President of Pakistan Cardiac Society also briefly addressed the participants and commend the various initiatives being taken by the NICVD faculty.