AHO to implement artificial intelligence to combat diseases in Africa
Africa Health Organisation (AHO) is exploring Artificial Intelligence (AI) for tackling the burden of diseases in Africa. AHO has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with African Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AIAI), to explore the application of cutting-edge AI technology in its fight against diseases in Africa.
As a part of the collaboration, AIAI AI will support AHO become AI-ready which would include, developing, piloting, and deploying AI-based solutions. It would support the programme in vulnerability and hot-spot mapping, modelling novel methods of screening and diagnostics and enabling decision support for care-givers.
“AIAI has been at the forefront of adoption of newer technologies in healthcare. The AI provides a unique opportunity for the health sector, bringing efficiency, saving resources and bringing accuracy in interpretation and enhancing quality of service delivery. Its use in this sector has an ample scope to improve outcomes, especially in situations where resources are limited,” said Graciano Masauso, President of Africa Health Organisation (AHO).
AHO need to innovate, with approaches such as digital health (electronic and mobile health) in support of patient care, surveillance, programme management, training and communication. It also mentioned that many experts forecast the imminent transformation of the delivery of healthcare services.
“Alongside the large-scale roll-out required for such interventions to make a significant impact, products must stay abreast of advancing technology over time. The integration of artificial intelligence into new software promises to make processes more effective and efficient, endowing them with a potential hitherto unimaginable,” Graciano Masauso said.
“Users can benefit from artificial intelligence-enabled pattern recognition software for tasks ranging from reading radiographs to adverse event monitoring, sifting through vast datasets to personalise a patient’s care plan or to customise training materials,” Graciano Masauso said.