Artificial intelligence is preferred in the field of medicine, as in every field. From personalized treatment and care to the discovery of new drugs, artificial intelligence is expected to make healthcare more accessible, effective and efficient in the not-too-distant future. Dr. Erdem Erkul, Founder & Chairman of Cerebrum Tech, an artificial intelligence company, draws attention to ethical, security and regulation issues regarding artificial intelligence applications in the field of medicine.
The Artificial Intelligence Summit, organized by Boğaziçi Ventures, was held with great interest from entrepreneurs, business professionals, academics and technology enthusiasts. A panel titled “Artificial intelligence revolution in health technologies” was held at the summit, sponsored by the startup studio Cerebrum Tech. In the panel moderated by Cerebrum Tech Marketing Director Meltem Yeğen, Bilgi University Faculty Member Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tuğba Dalyan, Clinical Psychologist Neslihan Çalışkan and HIWELL Founder and CEO Ali Ozan Özçiçek shared their opinions and experiences regarding the diagnosis and treatment opportunities offered by artificial intelligence in the field of medicine and psychology, new generation applications supported by artificial intelligence and potential innovations in the future. Cere, Türkiye’s first artificial intelligence assistant with a 3D avatar, developed by Cerebrum Tech, also attended the panel and answered the questions asked to her in the field of health.
Early diagnosis of diseases and personalized treatment period
Dr. Erdem Erkul, Founder and Chairman of Cerebrum Tech, which operates in the fields of artificial intelligence, games and web3, emphasized that many years of research and development in artificial intelligence have crossed a very important threshold in recent years and initiated a tremendous change in every sector. Drawing attention to the ability of artificial intelligence applications to monitor big data and create insight quickly, minimizing errors, Dr. Erkul said, “Artificial intelligence applications have opened the door to a series of revolutionary developments in the field of medicine, as in every field. The medical world is working to develop personalized solutions in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Thanks to artificial intelligence, large data sets such as disease symptoms, genetic factors, medical images and other clinical data can be processed. By determining the risk factors of diseases from this data, predictions can be made for early diagnosis of diseases and treatment.”
“Health for All” is possible with artificial intelligence
Declaring that these developments will contribute to making health services more accessible, effective and efficient, Dr. Erkul said, “Many lives are saved with the analysis of medical image processing in healthcare. Thanks to artificial intelligence and deep learning techniques, large image data sets such as MRI, CT scans, x-rays and other medical images can be analyzed and these images can be used to detect diseases, identify lesions and improve treatment processes. Very recently, two of the world’s most prestigious universities, Harvard and MIT, discovered a new class of antibiotics with artificial intelligence that can destroy drug-resistant bacteria by screening 12 million potential chemical compounds. The work, which normally would take years, could be completed in a very short time with artificial intelligence.”
We should not waste time on ethics, security and regulation in artificial intelligence
Underlining that in addition to the opportunities offered by the use of artificial intelligence in the field of medicine, it is necessary to be very careful about ethics, security and regulation, Dr. Erkul made the following warnings:
“First of all, protecting patients’ privacy and data security is a major concern. Since health data is extremely sensitive, the risk of unauthorized access and data leakage must be considered. Additionally, it should be clear how artificial intelligence algorithms make decisions and what data they are based on. Transparency and accountability are critical in assessing the accuracy and reliability of algorithms. On the other hand, AI applications can learn biases in data sets and reinforce those biases. This may increase inequalities in health care. Therefore, algorithms need to be corrected to reduce biases.
Patient consent and being informed are also very important. The patient must have a clear understanding of the consequences of using AI and be informed before making medical decisions.
Finally, medical decisions made by AI raise liability and legal issues. Who is responsible for incorrect predictions or erroneous decisions by algorithms? A clear legal framework needs to be established in this regard.”
