Petr Štourač and Daniel Schwarz will help implement AI in Czech healthcare
The Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University has two representatives in the newly established Czech Society for Artificial Intelligence and Innovative Digital Technologies in Medicine.
A new professional society has been established at the Czech Medical Society JEP - the Czech Society for Artificial Intelligence and Innovative Digital Technologies in Medicine (CSAIM).Two Masaryk University Faculty of Medicine representatives, Professor Petr Štourač and Associate Professor Daniel Schwarz from the Institute of Simulation Medicine will provide their expertise within the newly established platform. The former was appointed as chairman of the review committee, the latter as vice-chairman of the cybersecurity committee.
At a time of the boom of artificial intelligence and its increasingly intense penetration into all areas of our lives, including medicine, establishing a specialized professional society is a logical step. However, rules for its effective and safe use are still lacking. Setting them up is one of the first major tasks of the CSAIM. "There have been many developers and companies trying to find uses for AI in healthcare lately. I believe we will be able to improve the market conditions to make it easier for them to enter it," says Daniel Schwarz, who combines experience from both the academic world and the commercial sphere thanks to his involvement in the Carebot project, which focuses on AI diagnostics, on one of the company's tasks.
"At the same time, we have not yet fully experienced that these companies are paid for their products or services. Most of them rely on subsidies that allow them to get their projects to the certification stage, but I think there will come a time when the fight for insurance companies' money will start." That's where the new professional society should play a role, too - to help cultivate the market for cutting-edge technologies in the industry and set its rules.
As Daniel Schwarz's words suggest, both segments - healthcare and AI - are still learning to symbiosis with each other. Even at this early stage, it is crucial not to underestimate the cybersecurity ecosystem, which will surely grow in size in the future. "For example, we are helping IT professionals from hospitals who are approaching the Ministry of Health with questions about how to deal with vendors who provide AI solutions and store data in the cloud. They don't know whether they can use such services in hospitals at all, or under what conditions," Schwarz explains one of the topics and the advisory role of his committee.
In addition to the MU Faculty of Medicine, the eight-member CSAIM committee includes the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic, the General University Hospital in Prague, the Ostrava University Hospital, the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKEM), the T. Bata Regional Hospital in Zlín and the VSB - Technical University of Ostrava (VSB-TUO).