Expert advocates AI application for breast cancer detection, treatment

A call has been made for the adoption and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Nigerian hospitals to enhance the treatment of breast cancer among women.

The call was made by the Lead Data Scientist at EPAM Systems, a Turkish company, Dr Leonardo Iheme, while presenting a paper titled ‘Empowering the AI Revolution: A Guide for Modern Educators’ at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi on Wednesday.

The data analyst explained that the use of AI could be effective in diagnosing and detecting cancer early in women with a great deal of accuracy stressing that early detection could lead to early treatment which would save a lot of lives.

He also said that this would complement the efforts of the few available competent Oncologists at various cancer treatment centres across the country.

Iheme further said that the high number of patients seeking cancer diagnosis is putting pressure and stress on the doctors thereby causing minor errors in detecting tumours in patients, saying this could be avoided with the use of AI.

According to him, “Students who use AI are more likely to perform better than students who do not make use of AI.

“I’ve been working with AI for more than 12 years and I can tell you with full confidence that since I started using AI in my work, I have been more productive.

“There are things I could do in three hours before and today, I can do them in 20 minutes with the help of AI,” the Data Scientist also said.

According to him, there is a need for the Nigerian government’s involvement in the application of AI in all spheres of life stressing that if effectively applied, AI could help to develop health, agriculture, education and other sectors of the economy.

Iheme added, “It’s important for our public sector specifically the government, to be involved in this transformation and I’m very happy to say that in Nigeria, we are striving towards that.

“I’ve seen the works of the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani and what he has been doing in this regard and so many other initiatives.”

While reacting to the presentation, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Muhammad Abdul’aziz, called on members of staff and students to make the best use of the resources offered by AI to deepen research and innovation.

The VC added that in this age, the importance of AI cannot be overemphasized considering the role it is playing in the advancement of technology.

He then commended Iheme for the presentation saying that it could not have come at a more appropriate time than now.