A robot dog equipped with sensory technology can predict the evolution of a patient's health condition. (Photo courtesy of Casey Bennett)
Stuffed dogs with sensory suites can be used to track patient health based on how you interact with them. (Photo courtesy of Casey Bennett)
AI and wearable technology can help people make better daily health decisions. (Photo courtesy of Casey Bennett)
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After several years conducting robotic health research in South Korea, Casey Bennett returned to the United States with a new approach to health informatics. Bennett is currently an assistant professor and chair of the Health Informatics Program in the School of Computing, where he uses biomedical data to improve human health. Bennett brings together artificial intelligence and cyber-physical technology, the next generation of devices such as smartwatches. A new wave of data-driven decision-making products is poised to improve health outcomes, he says.
“Wherever you are, that's where health care happens. It's not limited to showing up in a doctor's office,” Bennett says.
Focusing on these systems, Bennett is reimagining DePaul's medical informatics program, allowing students to study how computer structures, algorithms, and AI can improve health care inside and outside the clinic. . Bennett is one of several DePaul experts who will speak at the School of Law's Jaharis Symposium, “Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: Existential Challenges for Law and Ethics.” In this Q&A with him, Bennett shares his plans for the latest health informatics program and his vision for the future of the industry.
How are AI and machine learning technologies used in the medical field?
WWe live in a world of devices. We have smartphones and smart TVs, but cars are like spinning computers. All these devices communicating with each other is called the Internet of Things. When devices can communicate with each other, they can share knowledge and have new capabilities such as cyber-physical systems that allow devices to control themselves without human intervention.
A smart thermostat is a good example, where you set the temperature and it automatically adjusts the temperature without you having to adjust it. This technology can help track data, but the real challenge is understanding how to move from tracking data to improving human decision-making. That's where AI comes in. AI can help make practical decisions to improve patient health and find new areas of opportunity that people don't yet know about.
What can this technology do?
IMy research has shown that there is a lot that can be done with this technology. We have robot pets that we give to people with brain health issues such as dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Pets are covered in sensors and can not only serve as therapeutic substitutes for real pets, but also provide data on a patient's brain health. Through subtle interaction patterns, we can tell a lot about a patient's health and predict whether it's getting better or worse.
You can do the same on your smartphone using an app called BiAffect. This app allows you to see how you type, see how your phone moves, and measure acceleration without seeing what you type. Based on things like whether their phone moves from side to side, how fast or slow they type, and how often they use backspace, they can determine a person's health status as accurately as a hospital's electronic health record or a doctor's note. can be predicted. This can also be done with wearables and Internet of Things devices.
Traditionally, healthcare has been perceived as something that happens when you enter a doctor's office or doctor's office. The doctor examined you and you went home. There will always be a role in healthcare, but healthcare happens every day. It's about our daily choices and actions. By leveraging this technology and medical informatics, we can go beyond the doctor's office and help people make better decisions about their health.
What is DePaul's vision for the medical informatics program?
Our vision is to make the program dedicated to AI and healthcare. This includes aspects of data science such as machine learning, as well as aspects of technology and digital health.
Many health informatics programs were designed in the early 2000s and are therefore a bit outdated. A lot has changed in the past 20 years, so we are revising our curriculum to focus on AI in healthcare and healthtech startups.
Our location in the heart of one of the world's major cities (Chicago) puts us in a unique position to build something special in the medical informatics space. We want to make it accessible not only to people in computer science, but also to clinicians who want to improve their technical skills. While making a program, you have to think, “What do you think things will be like in 10 years?” And we will design a course for that purpose.
What do you think the health information industry will look like in 10 years?
I tThink about the future career opportunities for people who become digital health experts, both on the data side and the hardware side. Tomorrow's clinicians will practice medicine in a more data-intensive manner.
Although many clinicians are trained to solve problems step by step, many people have multiple health problems. By approaching this problem in a more data-intensive manner, unexpected relationships may emerge and allow us to more effectively solve the problem through its underlying causes and relationships. You can only understand them if you look at the data.
Learn more about Medical Informatics at the School of Computing online.
Jade Walker is a Media Relations and Communications Student Assistant in the College of Communication.
