Some experts are reckoning that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the technological developments that will, in no small way, impact health services, making them better. In a health conference dubbed the e3 International Cancer Conference that took place in Kigali between March 28-29, health experts from various countries talked about what they think about AI’s role in healthcare services in the future, noting that it will play a key role not only in diagnosis but also pre-operative strategies and surgery. Brian de Francesca, a healthcare leader trained at Johns Hopkins talked about how healthcare information is not currently used to the maximum, and thus, with AI and machine learning, more use of it can be achieved. “30 percent of the world's data is from health Care. We are only using three percent of that data,” he noted. “With medical knowledge doubling every 73 days, it is simply impossible to keep up with it. I know we are all trying our best but when baby AI grows up and has access to all the medical knowledge, all the diagnostic test, all the treatment plans, all the outcomes everywhere every specialty, the average frontline physician, the average GP (General Practitioner), the average family medicine doctor will have access to everything. They will become super specialists,” he added. De Francesca noted that if that happens, it will do an incredible job for Africa as it is going to give more people more access. “I believe going forward, medical education will be far shorter because there will be less to learn. It will be taught more effectively, it will be lower cost, it will be available to a larger segment of the population. It's important. It will result in significantly more healthcare workers and help to end the global healthcare worker shortage,” he said. His counterpart Dr. Jacques Marescaux, a French doctor and expert in minimally invasive surgeries who is also the Founder of IRCAD, talked about AI’s role in early detection of tumours, diagnosis and surgery. “We need artificial intelligence in each step of surgery. We know everybody is saying surgery is just a procedure removing a tumour. No! The most important things are: - one the diagnosis, and then second is the strategy,” he said, as he added that by AI, undetected tumours can be detected for proper diagnosis. Giving an example of the stomach, he noted that without AI, it is difficult to do the diagnosis of early gastric cancer since the stomach is “a big porch.” However, he noted that today, such is possible with technological developments, for example in China. “For example this company, HiThink. With approximately 4000 engineers in artificial intelligence, they are able to do the automatic diagnosis of early gastric cancer and the results are absolutely better with the machine than with the gastric oncologist,” he said. In an interview with The New Times, Dr Emmanuel Rudakemwa, a chief consultant radiologist at Rwanda Military Hospital, said technology has a role to play in improving Rwanda’s healthcare. “If you look at the way we manage cancer, look at chemotherapy, talk about radiotherapy, talk about surgery, they require infrastructure, they require equipment, and they require human resources in quantity and quality. There are gaps there,” he noted. “The Rwandan government has come up with very many innovative solutions to circumvent the issues of low human resource capacity that we have. We are trying to see how AI, computing or machine learning – be it machine-machine or man-machine, or deployment of the internet of things can support the little human resource that we have,” he added. Dr. Rudakemwa pointed out that Rwanda has already tried out the use of technology like robotics in health care, giving an example of the Covid-19 period when robots were deployed to measure temperature at the airport. “We know that our governments have invested heavily in digital infrastructure, both soft and hard. So it should be the time now to see how these solutions should be brought to the limelight and contribute effectively in addressing the day to day challenges we face,” he noted. He reckoned that AI might not replace human beings in the near future but may make their work easy. Dr. Theoneste Maniragaba, an oncologist who is program director for cancer diseases at Rwanda Biomedical Centre said cancer incidence is rising in Rwanda, and there is a need for early diagnosis and preventive measures. “Considering the registry that we have, in 2022, we registered about 5,000 cases,” he said, adding that breast and cervical cancer cases were among the leading cases, and many of which reach treatment centres at advanced stages whereby curative treatment is not an option. Meanwhile, the conference also attracted various people from sectors including water and sanitation. Vestine Mukeshimana, the Country Director of WaterAid Rwanda, told The New Times about the relationship between clean water and fighting diseases like cancer. “Clean water, sanitation and hygiene are at the forefront of the battle when it comes to blocking infections from entering the human body. Contaminated water is a key driving route for pathogenic microbes that cause infectious diseases,” she said. “When someone suffers from cancer, one of the characteristics of their condition is compromised immunity. Their white blood cells go down and this exposes them to opportunistic diseases. This means that even those microorganisms that couldn’t attack people with good immunity will become invasive and attack the persons with cancer. So it is very important to consider water, sanitation and hygiene in the environment of these people struggling with cancer,” she added.
