By Bukayo Agboluaje
The School of Public Health, University of Medical Sciences, (UNIMED), Ondo City, Ondo State has said Artificial Intelligence {AI} can help predict future diseases.
This claim was made at the third public health grand round organised by the School of Public Health of the institution recently at the Laje campus of the University.
The programme had the theme: “Preventing the Next Pandemic: Use of Artificial Intelligence for Epidemic Monitoring and Alerts’’.
Speaking on the theme, the guest lecturer, Prof. Kehinde Oluwadiya, who is a surgeon and information technology {IT] expert, said: “AI-used Machine Learning methods can be leveraged to prevent the spread of deadly infectious disease outbreak”.
Continuing, Oluwadiya said: “AI helps to process medical data which health care workers can interpret to improve health outcomes. It can be applied to public health in the area of predicting communicable disease outbreaks and the direction that surveillance will take towards disease prevention and control.”
Speaking at the event, the Vice-Chancellor, UNIMED, Prof. Adesegun Fatusi described Artificial Intelligence as a computer- driven modern and innovative method that every health care worker should embrace and learn its operations.
‘’AI can pre-scan medical images and flag those of them that are unusual and direct the line of management”, the VC said.
The Dean of the School of Public Health, Prof. Olalekan Adebimpe, observed that “pathogens or microbes are struggling with humans for survival. Part of their strategy is to catch humans unaware, like it did during COVID-19. Artificial intelligence can help to predict future disease outbreaks and position us for efficient epidemic preparedness”.
The programme was attended by healthcare professionals, medical practitioners, staff and students of the university.