By Patricia B. Mirasol , Producer Depending on how it’s designed, artificial intelligence (AI) may be able to reduce inequities in Philippine healthcare, according to medical experts at the AI Horizons PH 2024 event. “We should.
..discover new ways to implement what we already know,” said Dr.
Antonio Miguel L. Dans, professor emeritus of the University of the Philippines (UP) Manila’s College of Medicine. AI isn’t only for the rich, he said on day two of the conference by the University of the Philippines Bonifacio Global City.
“We can increase the likelihood of reducing inequities...
depending on how we design it,” he said on October 25. In its Ethics and governance of artificial intelligence for health: Guidance on large multi-modal models , the World Health Organization highlighted the importance of developing AI technologies in a way that addresses biases, so health inequities are not perpetuated. The guidelines, published in January 2024, also said AI technologies should be made accessible and affordable to all, particularly to the most vulnerable.
“Let’s focus our research on narrowing the gap by discovering new ways of doing old things, like Efren, which is a new way of...
checking on our patient,” Dr. Dans said. “ If that can be done for those with less, then it’s something that can actually help bridge the gap,” he added.
Efren is a chatbot that assesses diabetes distress (or the emotional response of living with diabetes) among Filipino patien.