The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) has launched, in cooperation with the National Program for Artificial Intelligence, a National Platform for Radiology and Pathology during the Arab Health 2020, taking place at Dubai World Trade Centre.
The platform is set to collect mass data that would help analyze radiographs, MRI, ultrasound and axial stratification of all patients in the country, standardize blood tests and analyze many other pathological slides, relying on deep convolutional neural networks that collect data available about different diseases from all over the world.
The national platform will serve as a highly reliable medical reference and provide a state-of-the-art diagnostic support system for physicians. It will also provide conversational platform for sharing opinions by different physicians about a pathological diagnosis.
Digital technologies and algorithms
Awad Saghir Al Ketbi, Assistant Under-Secretary of the Support Services Sector at the ministry, said that the platform has been the result of constant collaboration with the National Program for Artificial intelligence, and will improve the performance of the health system especially in countering global health challenges.
The platform has been developed using digital technologies and algorithms to deliver high-quality diagnostic services in accordance with an integrated medical system. It will also help develop health information systems and attract treatment protocols, in line with the National Agenda 2021, Al Ketbi added.
Diagnostic digital database
Meanwhile, Ali Alajmi, Director, Information Technology Department, MoHAP, said that the platform will offer vital services for doctors through a diagnostic digital database. It will result in excellent healthcare services, saving time and expenses, and improving the level of health care throughout the country.
Alajmi highlighted that the platform will also contribute to providing high quality healthcare services in terms of accuracy and reliability and reduce error rates in diagnosis, which in turn cuts costs and increases satisfaction rates among users of healthcare facilities.
Earlier last year, the Ministry of Health launched a project to incorporate AI technologies into radiology devices developed examine the medical fitness of visa applicants. The diagnostic accuracy of these devices is about 98 percent, while only 2 percent of cases will need to be seen by a radiologist. Diagnosis of each case takes 0.1 seconds instead of 3 minutes in the traditional way of reading X-rays, which saves a lot of time and effort.