The role of artificial intelligence in improving healthcare will be examined today at the National Healthcare Outcomes Conference, which is taking place at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences.

The annual conference, hosted by the Healthcare Outcomes Research Centre (HORC) at the RCSI School of Population Health, will hear from a range of speakers on issues including AI and patient care, AI and population health, AI at Ireland’s new Children's Hospital, the potentials and pitfalls of AI for healthcare, human-centred healthcare AI and patient experiences of AI. 

The programme will also look at patients’ questions and concerns around AI in healthcare. 

In the first session of the day, chaired by AI Ireland founder Mark Kelly, expert speakers will look at ‘AI in Healthcare – The Basics’: TU Dublin’s Dr Robert Ross will discuss the potentials and pitfalls in AI usage as part of healthcare, and consultant radiologist Dr John Sheehan will explore the future of AI in healthcare. The final speaker, Nuala Sheehan, a patient advocate, will outline patients’ concerns and questions. 

Professor Mark Sujan from the University of York will kick off the day’s second session, ‘AI for Healthcare Professionals and Systems’, with his talk ‘Human Centred Healthcare AI’. Chief Information Officer of Children’s Health Ireland, Professor Neil O’Hare, will then outline his plans around AI enabling and embedding within the new Children’s Hospital. 

A quick-fire round on the topic of AI in practice will be followed by a fireside chat between AI Ireland’s Mark Kelly and President of the Mayo Clinic Health System, Professor Prathibha Varkey.

The third session of the day, ‘The Future’s So Bright, We Gotta Wear Shades’ will commence with EY Ireland Partner Dr Mary Coghlan and her talk ‘AI and Population Health: What Might the Future Hold?’ Icon PLC’s VP of Information and Informatics, Gerard Quinn, will follow with a discussion around machine learning and the deployment of AI within clinical research. Conrad Bernath, Head of Speech and Machine Learning at T-Pro, will then explore how AI is shaping patient care. A final panel discussion will close out the day. 

Attendees will be welcomed by Professor Jan Sorensen, HORC Director, along with Caitriona Walsh, Country President and Managing Director of Novartis Ireland, a sponsor of the event. 

Established in 2016, the Health Outcomes Research Centre (HORC) is dedicated to the development and dissemination of evidence-based research on healthcare outcomes that informs healthcare policy and improves patient outcomes.

The National Healthcare Outcomes Conference offers a unique forum for discussion about meeting healthcare challenges and how this might impact policy, planning, service delivery, funding, as well as access to innovation. More information is available here.