Digital Health Specialists shared experiences on the application of AI in health and its potential in the current context.
This web weekly was part of the series of virtual events "Share-Listen-Act, COVID-19: The Potential of Digital Health and Health Information Systems (IS4H) in the fight against the pandemic", promotedby the Pan American Health Organization, had the experience of specialists in Digital Health and information systems of various agencies in the region.
The speakers were Marcos Espinal, Director of PAHO's Department of Communicable Diseases and Health Analysis, Analía Baum, Director General of Health Information Systems of the City of Buenos Aires, Jagpreet Chhatwal, Harvard Medical School, Luis Tejerina, IDB Social Sector Specialist and Sameer Pujari, Expert in Digital Health by WHO (World Health Organization).
The main theme was COVID-19: Artificial Intelligence for the Digital Transformation of the Health Sector. Marcos Espinal explained of the risks of waiting for a vaccine on a virus that is still being learned and emphasized implementing measures for virus mitigation: “We need to ensure we implement actions or measures aiming to mitigate or slow the advance of this pandemic, there are two type of measures: containment measures and mitigation measures, that helps to flatten the curve as we see initially in New Zealand, Australia or Europe. We still learning about this virus.”
“We are working, so that when the vaccine is ready it will be accessible to everyone,” he said. It also recognized the importance of economic support packages for families during the pandemic.
Alina Baum, responded on the importance of AI: “The potential of artificial intelligence for the state is to integrate the data sources of conditions of employment, housing, water, sanitation, education, employability, along with health variables, in order to identify which people might have the highest risk of disease and less chance of accessing the health system , and in the context of COVID-19 lower conditions of isolating during the pandemic.”
The IDB representative, Luis Tejerina, agreed on the use of AI for the creation of databases: “Generate ordered databases with interoperability will allow us to see different socioeconomic variables that are determinants of health, an urban map that tells you where you have conditions that can be decisive to have negative effects on the health of the population”.
In the following link you can view the full video:
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