AI crucial to averting next pandemic — Ondo varsity

The School of Public Health, University of Medical Sciences (UNIMED), Ondo, has advocated for increased resort to artificial intelligence to help predict disease outbreaks and avert the next pandemic.

This was the resolution of the third public health grand round themed “Preventing the Next Pandemic: Use of Artificial Intelligence for Epidemic Monitoring and Alerts,” organised by the School of Public Health of the institution at the Laje Campus of the University.

Leading the discussion, the guest lecturer, Professor Oluwadiya Kehinde, a surgeon and IT guru, argued that artificial intelligence has in store machine learning methods that can be leveraged to prevent the spread of deadly infectious disease outbreaks.

Oluwadiya added, “AI helps process medical data, which health care workers can interpret to improve health outcomes. It can be applied to public health in the area of predicting communicable disease outbreaks and the direction that surveillance will take towards disease prevention and control.”

Speaking at the event, the Vice-Chancellor of UNIMED, Professor Adesegun Fatusi, stressed that artificial intelligence (AI) is a computer-driven, modern, and innovative method that every healthcare worker should embrace and learn its operations.

He emphasised that AI can pre-scan medical images, flag those that are unusual, and direct the line of management.

On his part, the Dean of the School of Public Health, Professor Olalekan Adebimpe, held that it was a fact that pathogens or microbes were struggling with humans for survival, and their strategy was to catch humans unaware like it happened with COVID-19.

To this end, Adebimpe said: “Artificial intelligence can help predict future disease outbreaks and position us for efficient epidemic preparedness.”

The programme was attended by healthcare professionals, medical practitioners, staff, and students of the university.

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