AI & ML in Healthcare Symposium Highlights Pittsburgh’s Potential

(From left to right) Ronald Poropatich, MD, MS; Karen Wolk Feinstein, PhD; and Paul Phrampus, MD at the “AI/ML in Healthcare Symposium.” Photo by Emily O’Donnell.

 On May 10 and 11, Pittsburgh showcased its potential to become a leader in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) within health care. The "AI/ML in Healthcare Symposium," hosted for the first time by the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Military Medicine Research, included two days of stimulating discussions by leading researchers and innovators on topics like AI applications in health care, AI's impact in pre-hospital and in-hospital healthcare delivery, improvements in medical imaging, technological applications for patient safety, and an exploration for future research and education as AI becomes more integrated with health care. The Jewish Healthcare Foundation was a co-sponsor of the event as part of its ongoing work to position the Pittsburgh region as a hub for transformative healthcare technologies and innovation, especially as it pertains to patient safety.

The Center for Military Medicine Research, led by Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative (PRHI) Board Member Ronald Poropatich, MD, MS, hosted the symposium with guidance from an expert planning committee which included Shandong Wu, PhD, Michael Pinsky, MD, and Giles Clermont, MD.

The Center for AI Innovation in Medical Imaging, a partnership between the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, and UPMC, led by Dr. Wu, is an important partnership between three key regional stakeholders working on AI in healthcare projects. Dr. Pinsky shared how the University of Pittsburgh's School of Medicine created a new class focused on exposing the fundamental concepts of AI in healthcare to first-year and second-year medical students to prepare them for a more digital and tech-enabled health care. The NOMA project, led by Dr. Clermont is focused on developing an AI model that can identify potential medical errors in the ICU by emphasizing early detection and forecasting of errors with the ultimate goal of enabling real-time insights and action. Artur Dubrawski, PhD, provided an overview about the key practical limitations of real-world healthcare AI and the current ways we have to overcome those challenges. He said that the key limitations of AI in practice are driven by the data we have, the models we build, and the humans that shape it all together.

Karen Wolk Feinstein speaking at the “AI/ML in Healthcare Symposium” with (from left to right) moderator Paul Phrampus, and panel-members Parthasarathy Thirumala, MD; Alexander Sundermann, DrPH; and Shyam Visweswaran, MD, PhD. Photo by Emily O’Donnell.

The symposium featured a panel focused on patient safety that was moderated by Dr. Paul Phrampus, the Director of the Peter M. Winter Institute for Simulation, Education and Research (WISER), and featured JHF and PRHI President & CEO Karen Wolk Feinstein presenting on the National Patient Safety Board (NPSB) and the ways it relates to the theme of AI/ML in healthcare. Through its focus on spreading solutions, the NPSB would support a national acceleration toward technology development and adoption with promising solutions implemented at scale. Shym Visweswaran, MD, PhD, another member of the panel, highlighted his team's work at the University of Pittsburgh focused on developing a learning electronic medical record system that predicts what information physicians would want to have displayed during the patient interaction pathways.

As the symposium concluded, the confluence of the speakers and attendees spanning academia, industry, and government only reinforced Pittsburgh's ability to lead in the application AI/ML to health care. JHF and PRHI will continue to build on the momentum of the symposium through its regional work to catalyze an autonomous patient safety industry in Pittsburgh.

Read more about the symposium in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and in TribLIVE.