Big Picture Medicine

What can 2 million retinal images and a machine-learning algorithm achieve? Early-detection of Alzheimers—at least that's what Dr Siegfried Wagner along with a team led by Dr Pearse Keane at the Moorfields Eye Hospital are working towards.  We discuss the study at Moorfields, before going down a deep dive into how a relatively novel AI technique—Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) can be used in Medicine. You may have seen a number of 'deep fakes' online, all made using GANs. But what legitimate uses do they have in Medicine and research?  Mentioned Links AlzEye Study: https://readingcentre.org/workstreams/artificial_intelligence_hub/alzeye/ Economist article on AlzEye: https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2019/12/18/a-system-based-on-ai-will-scan-the-retina-for-signs-of-alzheimers Rotterdam Study: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/2685868 Biobank Study: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/2685869 Predicting age and sex from retinal fundus images: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-018-0195-0

A professor of Pathology who has accepted his impending redundancy from AI image recognition—Professor Neil Sebire is also the Chief Research Information Officer at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH); the country's leading children's research hospital. We talk about the future of pathology and paediatrics in the context of AI, how he partnered with Microsoft to create the GOSH in Minecraft and I finish off by asking him for his advice on academic success and getting published.

Blockchain (the technology behind Bitcoin) can be difficult to understand. It's been surrounded by cultish hype and it's not immediately obvious how it relates to healthcare. In this episode, Dr Abdullah Albeyatti gives an 'Explain-Like-I'm-Five-Years-Old' explanation of blockchain and covers how it can be used to manage patient records, in clinical trials and even on the organ donation registry.  He explains his journey from a doctor with an idea, to CEO and cofounder of MedicalChain; an electronic health record system which uses BlockChain technology to put the patient in control of their medical data. It's a fascinating story, especially since they've had tremendous success raising $24 million of funding and are now on the approved online framework for the NHS as a supplier.  There's also lots of life advice for doctors and medical students looking to work in MedTech.