van der Schaar Lab

Revolutionizing Healthcare 2022

The past year of Revolutionizing Healthcare has been one of tremendously thought-provoking and engaging experiences. The audience’s attendance, engagement, and contributions have made this series truly special, and we cannot wait for 2023.

We would also like to use the opportunity to thank our diverse clinical speakers for sharing not only their knowledge and insights but also their passion and curiosity for a wide range of topics on machine learning and AI for healthcare.

In case you missed any session or would like to rewatch any, we provide you here with a short summary of all nine sessions from 2022! You can also find them and all previous episodes on our website as well as on YouTube.

Our 2022 sessions

AI and ML for early detection and diagnosis (Part 1) and (Part 2):

We began the year with a crucial double-header in February and March focussing on this important topic. Aptly named one of healthcare’s ‘holy grails’, an international panel of clinical experts explored how AI and ML can help transform early detection and diagnosis. You can read about our in-depth work on the topic here.

Our guests for these sessions included: Prof Hari TrivediProf Parag MallickProf Richard GilbertsonProf Tony NgProf Willie HamiltonProf Yoryos LyratzopoulosDr Alberto VargasProf Henk van Weert, and Prof Stephen Friend.

Clinical voices on the future of AI and ML for healthcare

The pointed conversations from the previous double-header inspired us to take a step back and look at AI and ML for healthcare through a broader lens – where is this field going in the future? For this purpose, we invited Prof Eric TopolProf Euan Ashley, and Prof Geraint Rees to share their visions with Mihaela and our audience. What followed was one of our most impactful roundtables to date. You can read our comprehensive article on that special session here.

Synthetic Data in Healthcare (Part 1) and (Part 2): 

April saw us pointing our attention to synthetic data and its value for modern healthcare. In this session, Mihaela offered an easy-to-follow, high-level introduction to synthetic generation, followed by a comprehensive presentation of a synthetic data demonstrator by Dr Jem Rashbass. This was complemented by an insightful roundtable together with Prof Carsten Utoft Niemann, and Dr Thomas Callender. Find out more about our work on synthetic data here.

Using ML to power clinical trials

Our second double-header in 2022 was a spotlight on clinical trials and how ML can transform them in May and July. Across these two sessions, we discussed with Prof Carsten Utoft NiemannProf Eoin McKinneyProf Pierre Marquet, and Prof Richard Peck the current ‘gold standard’ of randomised clinical trials, the challenges the clinical community faces, and what ML can offer to improve the next generation of clinical trials. We summarised the insights of these sessions in a dedicated page and also present our lab’s research focus on the topic here.

Cystic Fibrosis

September saw engaging with the challenges clinicians are currently facing regarding cystic fibrosis and how we can use current developments in AI and ML to tackle said problems. We invited Prof Damian DowneyDr Jamie DuckersDr Robert GrayDr Charles HaworthProf Alexander HorsleyCaroline Cartellieri Karlsen, and Prof Andres Floto to answer questions posed by Mihaela and the audience. Our guests gave us valuable insights on the work being done to fight the disease today, and how ML can give clinicians the right tools for the future. You can find further information about our work on cystic fibrosis here.

AutoPrognosis 2.0 (Part 1) and (Part 2): 

In October, we did not only celebrate our 20th Revolutionizing Healthcare session but also announced our biggest release to date: AutoPrognosis 2.0 – an open-source tool package for clinicians. This double-header, also including our final session of the year in November, put all emphasis on democratising automated and interpretable machine learning. We presented our ground-breaking tool to the audience and our guests, namely Prof Donald E. IngberProf Suetonia PalmerDr Paul GoldsmithDr Anthony Philippakis, and Dr Sarah Blake. These renowned experts presented us with their perspectives on the necessity of such a powerful tool, the democratisation of machine learning, as well as their impressions on AutoPrognosis in particular. You can find everything you need to know about AutoPrognosis 2.0 on our dedicated website, including the tool itself.

We are excited to invite you to our first 2023 session that will take place in the second half of January (precise date to be announced in the coming weeks): Machine learning interpretability: Making ML useful and actionable for clinicians and researchers

You can find more information about the topic in our dedicated research pillar here.

This was a full and productive year for our engagement sessions! On behalf of the van der Schaar lab and everyone involved in Revolutionizing Healthcare, we wish everyone a happy holiday and great start into the new year.

We are very much looking forward to welcoming you back in 2023!

Andreas Bedorf