The convergence of technology and medicine today in delivering increasing levels of automation and soon increasing levels of artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to an autonomous future for healthcare, said an industry expert.

Dr Junaid Bajwa, Microsoft Research’s Chief Medical Scientist, examined the role of AI in the laboratory during his talk at the Laboratory Management Conference at the ongoing Medlab Middle East in Dubai.

He said that more and more data in the medical care space, such as increasing data around genetics, about the environments, public health parameters and social circumstances that we live in, and data from wearable devices, is becoming more freely available.

“Combining all of these data assets together is a computational challenge but leveraging that for the purposes of health is the next frontier of healthcare,” he explained.

With the World Health Organisation predicting a 14 million shortfall in healthcare workers by 2030, he asked the audience to consider the role that technology can play in fulfilling that gap.

“Healthcare is exorbitantly expensive with 5% of the population taking anywhere between 25-60% of those resources from the most vulnerable in society. We need to move to a healthcare system that is not just about diagnosis and treatment, but about recognising and prevention, and ultimately towards the personalisation and personal healthcare,” he said.

In the laboratory, there are many areas of innovation in terms of automation advancements in home collection, home testing, Point of Care testing, all ultimately driving better patient experiences. There are also huge technology shifts happening around genome sequencing, digital pathology and automated testing systems.

Dr Bajwa said: “In terms of the role that AI can play, AI requires access to data, access to domain expertise and access to massive computing power. Today’s story is one of automation of processes, aggregation of data, moving to intelligent analysis and AI, and then repeating that cycle. If we get this right, it really has the potential to reduce costs and support clinicians by unmasking occult disease types, generalising new associations and perhaps even generating new novel hypotheses and new mechanisms with which we diagnosis disease in ways that we could have only imagined in the past.”

Process automation, digital integration, expanded access, data management and sharing, logistics, and personalised analytics are only a few things that are enhancing the lab experience. “We are already today creating the “self-driving lab” of the future - autonomous labs are not far away,” Dr Bajwa added. “However, AI today is really only being used in specific use cases, but fundamental infrastructure advances are required to achieve AI-driven and autonomous experiments in the future.”

Coinciding with Arab Health, Medlab Middle East will take place on June 23 and 24 at the Dubai World Trade Centre, attracting a range of key laboratory and trade professionals from across the region for the live and in-person event and featuring keynote speeches and scientific lectures, industry briefings, product demonstrations and networking opportunities, as well as a series of pre-arranged one-to-one meetings, with an emphasis on creating lasting relationships.

Rejoy Penacerrada, Conference Director for Informa Markets, said: “Over the next few days, Medlab will see the return of the much–anticipated Clinical Microbiology Conference focusing on the latest developments in microbiology and immunology and the role of the medical laboratory in both the management of infectious diseases and epidemiology of infections.

“Scientists, researchers, and consultants from across the Middle East region will also be able to exchange their knowledge and views on the current developments at the upcoming Clinical Chemistry, Blood Transfusion and Molecular Diagnostics Conferences at Medlab Middle East.”

A virtual showcase of Medlab Middle East will continue until July 22. – TradeArabia News Service