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Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly important role in healthcare, offering healthcare professionals great opportunities to improve the care they provide. Radboud AI for Health, in collaboration with Jheronimus Academy of Data Science (JADS), offers the AI for Health course for clinicians, researchers and support staff working in hospitals.
During 18 course days, this in-depth course allows healthcare professionals to understand what AI is all about. Moreover, you get hands-on experience with the implementation of your own AI project, providing you with all the tools you need to successfully bring AI into your work. Here we hear more from Mirjam Schaap, one of participants of the first AI for Health course.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I am Mirjam Schaap and I am a research physician and third year PhD student at the department of dermatology. My research focuses on innovative and non-invasive techniques in psoriasis, a common chronic inflammatory skin disease. These techniques could help us in the monitoring of psoriasis, and could even predict disease course or treatment response. My PhD is supervised by Marieke Seyger, Ellen van den Bogaard and Elke de Jong.
Why did you decide to follow the AI for Health course?
Since my PhD focuses on innovation, the AI for Health course fitted into the scope of my research. By participating in the course, I hoped to gain more insight into the possibilities and value of AI in the field of dermatology. Moreover, I think that physicians (especially in dermatology) will be increasingly confronted with AI. Therefore, I suspected that the knowledge gained from the AI for Health course would not only be useful for my research, but also for my work as a clinician.
Which topics covered by the course did you find particularly interesting?
I was particularly interested in image analysis and deep learning. I had never programmed before and learning the basics of programming was very useful as well. During the last phase of the course we worked on our own projects in small groups. This was definitely the most interesting part, as we were not only able to apply our newly gained knowledge, but we could also learn from each other.
What did you learn from the course? And how do you think it will impact your work?
I definitely gained more background information on AI and also learned how to go about an AI project. Furthermore, the course provided insight into the potential of AI in dermatology. Additionally, I found it very valuable to meet colleagues from other departments who also work with AI. The course has directly impacted my research, since it resulted in an AI project performed at our department. This project focuses on automated severity scoring in psoriasis and was granted with the Radboud AI Innovation Voucher, which enabled us to perform this study and to create a new research line at the department of dermatology.
To whom would you recommend the AI for Health course?
I would recommend the course to anyone who is interested in AI and considers working with AI. It is even possible to join if you do not have any experience with programming or AI.
Applications are now open for the next edition, starting on 10 September 2021. More information here
