By means of Patricia B. MirasolProducer
Depending on how it is designed, artificial intelligence (AI) could potentially reduce disparities in Philippine healthcare, medical experts said at the AI Horizons PH 2024 event.
“We need to… discover new ways to implement what we already know,” said Dr. Antonio Miguel L. Dans, professor emeritus at the University of the Philippines (UP) Manila’s College of Medicine.
AI is not just for the rich, he said on day two of the conference by University of the Philippines Bonifacio Global City.
“We can increase the chances of reducing inequality… depending on how we shape it,” he said on October 25.
In his Ethics and governance of artificial intelligence for health: guidance for large multimodal modelsthe World Health Organization emphasized the importance of developing AI technologies in a way that addresses biases so that health inequalities are not perpetuated.
The guidelines, published in January 2024, also state that AI technologies should be made accessible and affordable to all, especially the most vulnerable.
“Let’s focus our research on closing the gap by discovering new ways to do old things, like Efren, which is a new way to… monitor our patient,” said Dr. Dance.
“If that can be done for people who have less, then it is something that can actually help bridge the gap,” he added.
Efren does a chatbot that assesses diabetes issues (or the emotional response of living with diabetes) among Filipino patients.
Diabetes problems can, according to Dr. Iris Th lead to adverse consequences, such as reduced physical activity and less healthy eatingiele Isip-Tan, Professor 12 of the Medical Informatics Unit of the UP Manila-College of Medicine.
“I know firsthand that physicians may have limited time to assess diabetes problems,” says Dr. Tan, whose team designed the conversation tool.
“Patients should also not be expected to ask about their emotional state – or want to talk about it,” she said at the same event.
For the Diabetes Distress Scale, there are also “real questions about the doctor, such as: ‘Do you feel like your doctor is not taking your concerns seriously enough?’”
Underlying all AI efforts like Efren is data, part of the Genomics Philippines Initiative, which will sequence the genomes of 25,000 Filipinos by 2030.
Filipinos need their own database in which their own genomes are represented, said Dr. Felicitas L. Lacbawan, Executive Director of the Philippine Genome Center (PGC).
This, she said, will allow for more accurate and precise interpretation of their test results.
“The PGC is taking small steps in transforming laboratory services into accessible, affordable…genomics testing for Filipinos,” she told the audience at the Oct. 25 event.
“If we can reduce the cost of sequencing, we’re happy about it,” added Dr. Lacbawan to it.