The keynote speaker at the inaugural All-Ireland Clinical AI Congress and AI Tech Expo was Dr John Halamka, President, Mayo Clinic Platform. The platform is the Mayo Clinic’s healthcare innovation and technology ecosystem.
Dr Halamka delivered a talk titled ‘Harnessing the power of platform thinking to transform healthcare’.
Dr Halamka provided a brief overview of how AI is utilised in the Mayo Clinic and discussed the role of AI in reshaping healthcare systems globally, and what opportunities it may present for Ireland. In common with many other speakers at the Congress, Dr Halamka stressed the importance of good governance and described how this works at the Mayo Clinic.
Dr Halamka also discussed clinical innovations from the Mayo Clinic, including a wide array of clinical algorithms. “The challenge is to figure out which one of these innovations is going to solve your clinical or business problem,” he said.
“There are a thousand algorithms in radiology for pancreatic cancer, renal cell carcinoma, pleural effusion, and so on, so it’s a challenge to figure out what to buy and how to use it.
“This constellation of capabilities is there,” Dr Halamka told the Congress.
“But we are starting to see this front-ended with AI agents. You say, ‘here’s what I want to do,’ and the AI agent goes and finds the right tool, it runs the tool, and brings the results back to you.”
He stressed the importance of all stakeholders in healthcare, including patients, to be clear about what they want from AI before they employ it. He also provided some clinical examples of how AI is used in the Mayo Clinic in the areas of atrial fibrillation and other illnesses.
Dr Halamka discussed how AI can be used to predict the development of disease in these patients. It can also be used to predict the survival for a patient with glioblastoma, he added. He also highlighted the potential for AI innovation in a patient’s home and how this might free up precious nursing staff resources.
“This set of technologies is empowering,” Dr Halamka told the attendees. “It is augmenting human capabilities. It will enable us to practise at the top of our licence with the right patients in the right settings. There are good ways to control its safety and its quality, and most importantly, we all need to work together to share our experiences and best practices.”
He concluded: “I probably have about 30 years left on the planet and the way I would like to leave something behind is by convening all of us, and sharing our AI innovations for the benefit of patients, and I hope you will join me in that.”
Dr Halamka’s presentation was followed by the AI Innovation Poster Exhibition Bursary Award, which selected the most outstanding poster showcasing local AI innovation. The exhibition saw an extremely high standard of entries amounting to more than 20 posters.
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