What did China have to do with the Baylor Scott and White Dallas Foundation Board quarterly luncheon on Tuesday, February 12? More about that later.
The gathering of the guests like Trisha Wilson, Jill Smith, Charlie Brindell Jr., Dr. Bob Gunby, Julie Turner, Barry Andrews, Jim Lozier, Keenan Delaney, Steve Lieberman, Peggy and Dr. Leonard Riggs, Pierce Allman, Bob Kaminski and Ken Aboussie and his sister/ Spectral MD Program Manager Leah Gaither at Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center took place with the subject being “Artificial Intelligence: A Transformational Force In Healthcare” presented by Spectral MD Founder/CEO Dr. Michael “Mike” DiMaio.
But before the guests settled down to a lesson in high tech development in medicine, they caught up on the last four months.
Jacqueline Fojasek told Lindalyn Adams about her serving as honorary chair of the Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary Fashion Show on Tuesday, May 7… Highland Park Mayor Margo Goodwin admitted that her previous years serving on the HP City Council had prepared her for her new role but added that it was easier than her years fundraising for nonprofits… Seated next to 2019 Dallas Symphony Orchestra League Presentation Ball Honorary Co-Chair Ann Barbier-Mueller, Ken Schnitzer was receiving compliments on his daughter Lauren Schnitzer‘s debut on the previous Saturday… Rev. S.M. Wright was being congratulated on his Christmas program, in which 86,000 children received presents.
After a welcome from Board Chair Norm Bagwell and an invocation by Rev. Wright, Baylor Scott and White Dallas Foundation President Robin Robinson pointed out Robert Merkle whose Merkle Foundation had made a recent grant benefiting Baylor Scott and White’s Institute for Rehabilitation. Then Robin recognized SB International’s VP Chad Ganesh for a “significant gift” provided by SB President/CEO Satish Gupta and his wife Yasmin Gupta for the cardiovascular research and education at Baylor Scott and White Plano. According to Robin, the common denominator of the Merkle’s and the Guptas’ gifts was that both have had personal experiences “receiving care at these facilities” and wanted to support these programs.
In introducing the day’s program, Robin told how last September he had attended a retreat and learned about the use of echo-cardiograms in diagnosing heart disease using high-frequency sound waves in making pictures of the heart. In the past these images have been read by human experts. However, “automation and artificial intelligence were changing the landscape of echo-cardiologists.” In the years to come, AI will provide a more consistent and a more accurate diagnosis than humans could.
A few months later he had lunch with Michael, who introduced him to Spectral MD, a “non-invasive program using color and light to innovate wound care.”
Since that time Robin had learned that despite AI being around for a long time, great strides had been made in an area called “deep learning,” which allows AI computers to learn by listening to and learning from examples instead of giving it specific guidelines to follow.
Robin took this interest further by reading “AI Superpowers China, Silicon Valley and the New World Order” by Kai-Fu Lee, who presented “a broad look at the current state of AI and China’s dramatic progress in the last five years and the massive social disruption that will occur as AI replaces half of the jobs in the world.”
To further demonstrate how AI and healthcare are progressing, Mike took over. At times he referred the importance of developments to Baylor Scott and White Health CEO Jim Hinton, who later admitted that he was having to check his smartwatch when his name was mentioned to check his blood pressure.
While some of Mike’s talk may have seemed geared to more of a techie crowd, highlights included:
- According to World Economic Forum Founder/Executive Chair Klaus Schwab, “The fourth industrial revolution will affect the very essence of our human experience.”
- “MD Anderson benched IBM Watson in setback for Artificial Intelligence in medicine,” resulting in the “axing” of engineers last year.
- In 1950 Alan Turing publish an article about The Turing Test, “a method of inquiry for determining whether or not a computer is capable of thinking like a human being.” For an example, Michael used a child learning the difference between a cat and a dog.
- Over the years, AI has gone through three periods — 1950s-1970s: Neural Networks (Early work with neural networks stirs excitement for “thinking machines”), 1980s-2010s: Machine Learning (Machine learning begins to flourish); and Present Day: Deep Learning (Deep learning breakthroughs drive AI boom).
- China is plowing ahead of the U.S. with its 5G and doesn’t hesitate to “borrow” from others. According to a story by Cade Metz for the New York Times in 2018, “Last summer, China unveiled a plan to become the world’s leader in artificial intelligence, challenging the longtime role of the United States.”
- As the Chinese develop their technology, they are able to use facial identification in a crowd to ID persons of interest.
- Without getting political, Michael warned that his priority was not about a wall, but rather the vulnerability of the nation’s internet.
- Thanks tp both high-tech engineers and healthcare experts working together, Spectral MD’s providing the capability for such things as cherry-picking areas of burn wounds that are capable of being healed.
- When asked if such development would result in healthcare professionals being less in demand, he suggested that thanks to such developments, doctors would have more time for one-on-one time with patients.
- In the future, foundation underwriting and support will probably be expanded to include such innovative programs, as well as brick-and-mortar establishments.
As the guests took leave on the elevator, one woman summed up the program: “I’m now scared of the Chinese.” The consensus of her elevator companions was in agreement.