By Patricia B. MirasolProducer
Depending on how it is designed, artificial intelligence (AI) can reduce inequality in Philippine healthcare, according to medical experts at the AI Horizons PH 2024 event.
“We must…find new ways to do what we already know,” said Dr. Antonio Miguel L. Dans, senior professor of the University of the Philippines (UP) Manila’s College of Medicine.
AI is not just for the rich, he said on the second day of the conference is the University of the Philippines Bonifacio Global City.
“We can increase the chances of reducing inequality … depending on how we design it,” he said on October 25.
In it The ethics and management of artificial intelligence in health: A guide to large-scale multimodal modelsThe World Health Organization highlighted the importance of developing AI technology in a way that addresses biases, so health inequalities do not persist.
The guidelines, published in January 2024, also stated that AI technologies should be made accessible and accessible to all, especially the most vulnerable.
“Let’s focus our research on reducing the gap by finding new ways to do old things, like Efren, which is a new way…to test our patient,” said Dr. Dans.
“If that can be done for those who have less, then it is something that can help close the gap,” he added.
Efren is there a chatbot that assesses diabetes stress (or the emotional response to living with diabetes) among Filipino patients.
The stress of diabetes can lead to side effects such as weight loss and less healthy eating, according to Dr. Iris Th.iele Isip-Tan, professor 12 of the UP Manila-College of Medicine’s Medical Informatics Unit.
“I know personally that doctors may have limited time to diagnose diabetes,” said Dr. Tan, his team is designing a chat agent.
“Patients may and may not be expected to ask – or wish to talk – about their emotional state,” he said at the same event.
According to the diabetes stress scale, moreover, “there are real questions about the doctor such as ‘Do you feel that your doctor is not taking your concerns seriously enough?'”
Underpinning 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 with their genomes represented, according to Dr. Felicitas L. Lacbawan, executive director of the Philippine Genome Center (PGC).
He said this would allow for a more precise and accurate interpretation of their test results.
“PGC is taking baby steps in making laboratory services accessible, affordable…genomics testing for Filipinos,” he told the audience of the October 25 event.
“If we can reduce the cost of sequencing, we are happy about it,” added Dr. Little girl.
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