CHUM launches first French-language school of AI in medicine

AI has already begun to revolutionize medicine.

Striving to become a world leader in medical artificial intelligence, the Centre hospitalier de l’université de Montréal announced on Wednesday that it has founded the world’s first French-language school devoted to the study of the social, legal and ethical implications of AI in the health sector. Doctors and researchers at the CHUM are already pursuing no fewer than 80 AI projects, including in ophthalmology, dermatology, radiology, endocrinology and radio-oncology. Surgeons are also experimenting with AI using robots in the operating room for certain procedures. “AI has already begun to revolutionize medicine,” said Dr. Vincent Oliva, chief of the department of radiology and nuclear medicine at the CHUM. “It is now used not only to assess brain volume for the detection of Alzheimer’s disease, but also to evaluate cardiac function, detect lung nodules and predict cancers. It will redefine and enhance the role of medical imaging.” It’s in that fast-changing context — with advances in medical AI at potential risk of breaching ethical or privacy concerns — that authorities decided to establish the École de l’intelligence artificielle en santé du CHUM (EIAS). “We have to make sure that our teams will use (AI) in an ethical way, both for the patient and the caregivers, and to follow all the rules in terms of privacy, in terms of accuracy of the data and the reasoning that is based on this data,” Dr. Fabrice Brunet, executive director of the CHUM, said in an interview. He cited as an example the use of AI to treat patients suffering from schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. “If we have some errors that are made by artificial intelligence, we have to be sure that it’s something that we can detect,” Brunet explained. “We have to be sure that we understand what it is that artificial intelligence is doing.” Across North America, universities are racing to develop AI. In California, Stanford University has established the Center for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Imaging, conducting research that “solves clinically important imaging problems using machine learning.” Devising smarter algorithms will not be the goal of Montreal’s EAIS. The CHUM school will be more akin to a medical AI program offered at Singularity University in San Diego, which focuses on how technology is shaping the future of health care. Brunet noted that although there are some medical AI programs in France, the CHUM school will be the first one in the Francophonie devoted to the comprehensive study of AI. The school also expects to partner with industry and health institutions like the Jewish General Hospital. In September 2017, Facebook announced it would fund an AI research lab at McGill University, earning praise from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Brunet suggested that with the McGill lab and the CHUM school, Montreal is positioning itself to become an international leader in AI.