Emory University to launch Empathetic AI for Health Institute

Emory University is focused on new ways artificial intelligence can be used in healthcare – not only to improve care delivery, but also to expand access and equity for patients across the population.

WHY IT MATTERS
With the launch this month of its Emory Empathetic AI ​​for Health Instituteor AI.Health, as part of its AI.Humanity initiative, the university will study the many ways data can be used to transform the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure of “diseases on a global scale,” university officials say. .

Researchers at the new institute, also called Emory AI.Health, will use supercomputers to search patterns in large data sets and deploy AI-powered predictive analytics to help improve outcomes in diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

Billed as the first of its kind in Georgia, the institute will also focus on developing accessible, cost-effective and equitable AI tools by collaborating with other experts from Emory and the surrounding community – the Atlanta VA Medical Center, the Georgia Institute of Technology and others.

Emory AI.Health’s goal is to leverage data to increase quality and access to care for all populations, while using AI tools to reduce bias, officials say, with a mission to ” innovate, deploy and scale up to impact patient health and well-being.”

Improving healthcare equity will be central to Emory AI.Health’s efforts.

For example, precision medicine’s ability to personally tailor diagnoses and treatments has shown enormous promise. But a lack of diversity in clinical trials can exacerbate existing health disparities by creating an algorithmic bias toward majority populations. Ensuring transparency and ethics in the data models will be paramount at AI.Health, school officials say.

Emory AI.Health will be led by Anant Madabhushi, a Robert W. Woodruff Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Emory and Georgia Institute of Technology, an immunology researcher at the Winship Cancer Institute and a scientist at the Atlanta VA Medical Center.

“There is a critical need to develop dedicated AI-based risk prediction models for minority patients,” Madabhushi said in a statement. “The reduction in costs resulting from AI-based precision medicine, as well as the elimination of the need for invasive biopsies, are even greater blessings for underserved and underfunded populations locally in Atlanta, nationally and globally.

“With the power of AI and precision medicine, we are stepping into a future where healthcare is not just reactive, but proactive for everyone, regardless of their background, to ensure everyone has the best chance at a healthy life,” Madabhushi added – who joined Emory this past year, has authored more than 475 peer-reviewed publications and holds more than 200 patents issued or pending in the areas of AI, radiomics, computational pathology, medical image analysis and computer vision.

The institute will also launch a university-wide recruitment effort through AI.Humanity, which is recruiting up to 60 new faculty members focused on AI in disciplines such as health, law, business, ethics and other areas.

THE BIG TREND
University officials note that Atlanta’s networking researchers, physicians, computer scientists and ethicists — not only at Emory but also at Georgia Tech and elsewhere — make the city well-positioned to serve as a major research center for AI in healthcare.

A central goal is to promote healthcare equity by reducing healthcare costs and increasing both quality and access to care for all populations, with an initial focus on the underserved population of the Atlanta region.

ON THE RECORD
“Emory AI.Health is bringing together a dream team of researchers and physicians using AI innovations to improve care not just for individuals, but for entire populations,” said Ravi V. Bellamkonda, Emory University provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.

“By combining state-of-the-art approaches to precisely treat each person’s unique disease with a broad focus on improved efficacy, affordability and access, AI.Health will advance Emory’s mission to serve humanity, both in Georgia as well as worldwide. This institute embodies our commitment to delivering high-quality health care, conducting research that finds new cures, and leading the way in deploying powerful tools like artificial intelligence in service of that mission.”