{"id":436971,"date":"2023-02-16T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=436971"},"modified":"2023-02-16T06:30:00","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T05:30:00","slug":"predicting-the-future-with-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/predicting-the-future-with-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Predicting the future with AI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

He just visited India for the third time in a year. Andre Dekker, clinical physicist and professor of Clinical Data Science at Maastricht University<\/a>, Maastro Clinic<\/a>, and the Brightlands Institute for Smart Society<\/a> (BISS), spends a lot of time on the road with his team to build the infrastructure for the health train, which has been included as a best practice in the government\u2019s Strategic Action Plan on Artificial Intelligence. Using data as cure to fight an overburdened healthcare system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dekker uses the train as a metaphor to make it clear that you don\u2019t necessarily have to store data in one location to release it for a request for healthcare. You can actually send a request for healthcare as if it were on a train travelling past data centers (for example, in Indian hospitals), picking up information. In just a few minutes, the \u201ctrain\u201d picks up all of the relevant knowledge while ensuring that the data remains anonymous and stays at the source. This prevents ethical and legal hairsplitting about the exchange of privacy-sensitive information. Dekker estimates that it can take between five and ten years before the train traffic really gets going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Proton therapy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to Dekker, AI can help doctors and patients make better choices when it comes to the treatment of cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, bowel diseases and Alzheimer\u2019s. In order to do this, AI has to try to predict a patient\u2019s future based on data or algorithms. What is the expected outcome if treatment A or treatment B is chosen? \u201cHumans and by extension, doctors, are very bad at predicting the future but AI is able to do this,\u201d says Dekker from his office in Maastricht. \u201cAfter all, many more factors can be weighed in their prediction. At the Maastro Clinic, we irradiate cancer patients using very expensive therapy. This proton therapy costs around 50,000 Euros, five times more than normal radiation therapy. Does this treatment really produce better outcomes for this patient? They have expensive machines in India, but many people cannot afford the treatment. Can it be less expensive to use a different device? We are using AI to try to predict which treatment will have a certain outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nerds<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Born in Eindhoven, Andre Dekker, now a father of four, became a physicist at Twente University of Technology. Both his parents are engineers, and his father worked for Philips. \u201cI come from a nerdy family,\u201d he grins. \u201cBoth of my sisters are also engineers. We were at my parents\u2019 recently, where it was yet another celebration of nerdiness.\u201d He went to Maastricht to become a clinical physicist, a field that involves hospital technology, from lasers to radiation devices. He then earned his doctorate in cardiac surgery (artificial hearts), and joined the radiotherapy department. Andr\u00e9 quickly became head of clinical physics, and was also responsible for IT and technology. When the department was split up, he chose IT. \u201cWe\u2019re an academic institute so we also want to do research in IT. You need data to do this. In 2009, even though it wasn\u2019t yet called AI, the question still was: how can we better learn which choice to make from the data we have? He has been a professor of clinical data science since 2015. \u201cAt Maastro, we believe that data is our core business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is of course also an ethical side to data collection. \u201cYes,\u201d says Dekker. \u201cAI can be very stigmatizing and also affect your autonomy. If AI tells you to quit smoking and you don\u2019t, does this create problems for you? Does this mean you won\u2019t get life insurance? These kinds of issues are already in play; we have to make choices about who gets a heart transplant and who doesn\u2019t. This is a problem that has always existed in healthcare. AI won\u2019t do anything to change that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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AI can read a mammogram better than a radiologist. AI can check skin cancer or automatically screen all of the tissues in a scan. And it\u2019s available 24\/7<\/p>\nAndre Dekker<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Skepticism<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe more you know about a patient, the more accurately you can predict what might happen to this person,\u201d Dekker says. But is this something a patient really wants? \u201cAI can never take over a human conversation. If you have a prediction via AI, you know what the literature says and what the guidelines are, but the doctor always checks to make sure this is in line with what the patient wants.\u201d And yet, there is still a lot of skepticism among physicians. \u201cSomething I hear often is will AI replace me as a doctor? Yes, this is possible. AI can read a mammogram better than a radiologist. AI can check skin cancer or automatically screen all of the tissues in a scan. And it\u2019s available 24\/7. This may seem like a threat to someone\u2019s profession, but the truth is that AI actually takes over all of the routine (and some might say, boring) tasks, and this allows doctors to concentrate on more interesting things. We read about the shortages in the healthcare sector every week in the newspaper. It\u2019s important to automate, and this will help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another critique is that doctors don\u2019t want to lose their autonomy. Dekker understands this. \u201cIt may sound harsh, but it\u2019s really just a matter of time. The younger generation has a very different attitude about this. Their thinking is: if I never have to beat another mammogram again in my life\u2026 If AI turns out to be better than a human, are we going to teach a human to do it? Studies show that doctors are not very good at predictions. If you ask a doctor: \u2018How long does this patient have to live?\u2019 then you might as well toss a coin to find out the answer. AI is there to help doctors. People expect machines to be perfect, and say things like, \u2018If the AI isn\u2019t perfect, I\u2019m not going to use it. Of course it\u2019s not perfect; you can\u2019t predict exactly when someone is going to die. Besides, that would be creepy. But better than the doctor. It\u2019s a difficult discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Andre
Andre Dekker \u00a9 Marcel van Hoorn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Science fiction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Andre Dekker knows he is very much at the vanguard in this field. And the fact that robots equipped with AI take over the world in science fiction movies doesn\u2019t really help. \u201cThis is an image I have to fight. Look, Teslas are also equipped with AI, but what people don\u2019t understand is that there\u2019s not just one AI system, but thousands. One AI looks to see where the traffic lights are. Another looks to detect where the lines on the road are. The next AI sees something and asks, \u2018Is this a dog or a human?\u2019 Teslas are chock full of AI tools that are all very good at one specific thing. We can develop an AI that can really help a patient population. However, if you enter the wrong patient in the system, the AI is going to make mistakes. AI will never replace doctors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What good is data from, say, India to Dutch patients? \u201cYou learn from the differences, which is why data from India can be very useful. They have a different lifestyle in India; half of the population are vegetarians, for example. If you want to know if cancer progresses differently in a vegetarian, you should go to India. They use other treatments there that are much cheaper. We tend to overtreat many people but we can\u2019t go back because no one will accept that. How do you find out that a cheaper, simple treatment is just as good? Just look at what they do in other countries.\u201d It also works the other way around. \u201cThey can use our data to determine which patients should get the proton treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Triage<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Dekker doesn\u2019t see that many differences between how a doctor works and how AI works. \u201cA doctor is someone who has gained an enormous amount of knowledge from the literature and practice. This information is also data. AI is just a bit more extreme; it can view the data for ten thousand patients all over the world at a single glance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI is applied daily in hospitals. \u201cTake Maastro now, for example; radiology, pathology, and other departments all use AI to do things they don\u2019t want to do or they outsource tasks to AI and then perform checks. For example, AI can provide an immediate indication, based on scans, that triage is necessary and that the patient must be given priority status, otherwise they would have to move to the back of the line.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>
<\/div><\/div>
AI technology in healthcare attracts enthusiasm and distrust alike<\/div>
More and more hospitals, companies and start-ups are discovering the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for healthcare. Yet not everyone is leaping at the opportunity. … Continued<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

One million Euros<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The first treatment using AI to predict a patient\u2019s future is already here. \u201cAnd this prediction determines whether treatment with proton therapy will have an effect or not. In the computer, a simulation for classical radiation and one for proton radiation are both input in the AI, which calculates the difference in side effects. The AI determines whether this patient will receive proton therapy. Even if the doctor pounds the table with his fist, or you get a million Euros from China – this has also happened – the AI has the deciding vote. This provides model- or AI-based grounds for treatment, and is objective. Patients accept this, too. What the AI is actually saying is that proton therapy doesn\u2019t make much sense for you. Or: we would rather give your treatment slot to someone else who stands to derive more benefits from the treatment. This is where gains can be made, in my opinion, because it means you are making a more cautious decision. All of the data from the proton treatment is then put back into the model, to ensure the model continues to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andre Dekker works in Heerlen one day a week at what he calls the \u201cBrightlands AI campus\u201d. He is involved at the campus through BISS. \u201cWe are trying to combine activities in this area in Heerlen. What\u2019s so interesting about Brightlands is that we are close to industry. The challenge is to figure out how to access data at large and small companies in order to develop AI. You don\u2019t want to be in the business of selling data, since that\u2019s against the law. We do want a company like Philips to develop AI systems that help us in the healthcare sector.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He just visited India for the third time in a year. Andre Dekker, clinical physicist and professor of Clinical Data Science at Maastricht University, Maastro Clinic, and the Brightlands Institute for Smart Society (BISS), spends a lot of time on the road with his team to build the infrastructure for the health train, which has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2261,"featured_media":495344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"views\/single-partner.blade.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34665],"tags":[69735,25783,65832,30764,28722],"location":[6763],"article_type":[6758],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[],"reboot-archive":[],"class_list":["post-436971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-ai-nl-3","tag-artificial-intelligence-nl","tag-bright-people","tag-cancer-treatment","tag-healthcare-en","location-netherlands","article_type-interview"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"Artificial intelligence (AI) has to be able to help the healthcare sector make better choices. Professor Andre Dekker\u2019s personal health train' plays a prominent role in the development of this object.","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Emile Hollman","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/emile-hollman\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/bl_bssc_andre_dekker_brightlands_20221213_0148_rs.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Health<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Health<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["AI<\/a>","Artificial Intelligence<\/a>","Bright People<\/a>","cancer treatment<\/a>","healthcare<\/a>"],"unlinked":["AI<\/span>","Artificial Intelligence<\/span>","Bright People<\/span>","cancer treatment<\/span>","healthcare<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 3 years ago","modified":"Updated 3 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on February 16, 2023","modified":"Updated on February 16, 2023"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on February 16, 2023 6:30 am","modified":"Updated on February 16, 2023 6:30 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2261"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436971"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=436971"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=436971"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=436971"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=436971"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=436971"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=436971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}