AI Can Transform Patient Care In T&T

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer the future of healthcare - it is changing lives right now. Chief Executive Officer of the North Central Regional Health Authority, Davlin Thomas, made the pronouncement at the Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Conference on Tuesday. Described as the first AI Healthcare Conference in Trinidad and Tobago, this event highlighted the possibilities of AI being widely and actively a part of the Trinidad and Tobago healthcare system. Mr. Thomas said health care is expensive especially when care at hospitals, or specialised care, is required. Mr. Thomas said AI will directly reduce those costs and positively impact delivery of care. "So basically when you have a lab test, you immediately have the results. Immediately. And that's what AI is going to afford for us, and in some instances it's starting to. And once we start putting ourselves in that kind of position, it means you don't have to come back next week or the week after and so on. It means that at the point of service, we can say this is what is wrong with you and this is what we're going to do. AI might even be able to tell us what we should do. You know, and that's an exciting future possibility." He is hopeful that this Conference sparks serious conversation among stakeholders and policy makers. "How do we not send 10,000 persons into the hospital by ensuring that we have other kinds of smart equipment on the periphery so that when you go to a Health Centre, we can just test you. It doesn't do the thing that the hospital does, but it tells us, no, that's not bad enough to send them to the hospital. So that's where the competition is. How do we engage the technology? Because the technology is out there. The question is, how do we adapt and engage the technology in a manner that facilitates improvement in outcomes of patients and improvement in the experiences of our patients?" Mr. Thomas assured that this would not be the last of this conversation, and in collaboration with other key stakeholders, it will be one of many. The theme for the Conference was 'Catalyzing Change: Exploring the Transformative Impart of AI on Patient Care.' It was aimed at exploring how AI is revolutionising the healthcare landscape, by offering game-changing insights into diagnostics, treatment, and patient care.