An exciting discussion event, coordinated by the College for the British Science Festival 2018, brought together researchers and doctors from the UK, Sweden and the Netherlands to explore the question ‘as technology in healthcare develops, is there a risk of losing the ‘human-touch?’

The event, entitled, ‘The robot will see you now’ highlighted the potential for the use of AI In medical research involving imaging, and explored the importance of humans and computers working together to tackle important challenges in health and disease. Four leading experts presented exciting new areas of research and medicine, and gave their view on what aspect of their work will have the biggest impact on healthcare, as well as discussing wider contexts of developing and introducing new technologies to healthcare. Over 80 people attended the discussion event, held at the University of Hull’s Health Campus.

Consultant Pathologist, Dr Darren Treanor, who heads up the Leeds University Digital Pathology Group, and acts as Digital Lead for The Royal College of Pathologists said:

“Digital medicine and artificial intelligence are really hot topics right now. There has been much talk of a future world where human jobs are replaced by intelligent machines, and concern this could happen in healthcare. The panel of experts we brought together for this event, gave an insight to the state of the art in AI in one area of medicine – the diagnosis of cancer by pathologists. The event offered members of the public the chance to ask about what AI really means for pathology diagnosis and patients.”

The event started with a welcome from the event-chair, Professor Kate Gould, a Consultant Microbiologist and the Chair of the RCPath England Regional Council. Dr Treanor was then the first to speak with a short introduction to histopathology, followed by some examples of his group’s pioneering work on using digital imaging to better study tissue, thereby improving our diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other diseases.

Professor Carolina Wählby, a leading researcher on quantitative microscopy from Uppsala University, Sweden, talked about how the human visual system and an AI-based system can complement one another; and explained some of the successes and challenges of her work on training robots to do the more repetitive, mundane work of a histopathologist.

Professor Jeroen van der Laak, Associate Professor in Computational Pathology at the Department of Pathology of the Radboud University Medical Center explored the AI-based ‘deep learning’ technologies being developed by his research group and presented his view that such technologies will play an important role in overcoming the challenges of an increasing demand for high-quality cancer diagnostics.

The final speaker, Jonny Hancox, NVIDIA Deep Learning Solution Architect, Health and Life Sciences, explained why pathology in particular is so well-suited to AI, and what the latest advances in computing technology might mean for future disease diagnosis, prevention and treatment.

 Professor Kate Gould then chaired an audience Q&A, which generated some really interesting questions from attendees including ‘How can I trust a robot with my test results?’ and ‘should we rename artificial intelligence?’ Guests were invited to stay on for a drinks reception where they could continue their discussions with speakers and see further examples of digital pathology

The event offered a unique opportunity for people from a range of backgrounds to engage with scientists and doctors working at the forefront of research and development in health-related AI. It generated some really interesting discussions between pathologists, scientists and the public on complex medical diagnoses and processes, AI and its impacts on society, and helped illustrate the importance of humans and computers working together on complex medical diagnoses and processes.