Medical colleges should include artificial intelligence (AI) in their training programmes because AI can do many routine jobs that a doctor does now.
Doctors can then invest the time on a patient who will need it, two professors of surgery at two universities in Germany said at a medical conference in the city on Friday. They said if the workload of doctors reduces because of AI, the doctor could actually see more patients.
“Medical colleges and teaching hospitals have to increase funding in artificial intelligence,” said Andrew Gumbs, a professor of surgery at the University of Magdeburg.
“We need surgeons and doctors who are well-versed in AI,” he added. Florian Gebaeur, a professor of surgery at the University of Cologne, said often a doctor “spends time and resources for 99 patients who don’t need it.” Gumbs and Gebaeur cited examples of new technologies where computers analyse images and detect anatomical anomalies. Out of thousands of images analysed, the computer will detect only the ones with anomalies.
“There is a technology that video record the entire procedure during colonoscopy. AI can look at all of the images very quickly and more precisely than a human and can tell if there is an anomaly like a polyp that needs to be removed,” said Gumbs.
A radiologist can go through 30 CT scan in a day but a computer can look at 2,000 and point out the anomaly, said Gumbs. AI can also make surgeries safer, said Gebaeur.
“We are humans and we do make mistakes. AI can prevent errors.”
Gumbs and Gebaeur were speaking on the sidelines of a national conference organised by the Indian Association of Surgical Gastroenterology at a city hotel. A senior official of the state health department agreed that MBBS students must be introduced to cutting-edge technologies.
“All the advanced countries are investing in AI. We are also thinking about whether we can introduce our students to AI during their undergraduate years,” he said.
Surinder Singh Bhatia, the director of medical services at Apollo Multispeciality Hospitals in the city, said they were in the process of buying equipment that would analyse images from the intestine and indicate anomalies.