Science talks. Collaborative partnerships make it happen.
The LDT rule. It is here, it has been announced. There are many comments, blogs, websites, articles, webinars, panel sessions and posts published about it and it affects many. Therefore, I am grateful to notice that all affected stakeholders, have been, are and keep partnering in development of AI tools, independently whether it is an LDT or IVD.
Two weeks ago I participated in an Medical Imaging and Data Resource Center (MIDRC) workshop taking place at the National Institute of Health (NIH), where experts in the field in healthcare, images, data, datacommons were presenting about “A vision for the future of trustworthy AI in Medical Imaging”. Topics addressed were amongst others AI in medical imaging, its advantages for users and patients, usage, progress in healthcare, where it can be applied and how, technical details, as well as governance and related structure.
I enjoyed observing lots of progress has been made over the years and especially in radiology, which could benefit pathology. The scientific data presented included training of unsupervised models, using reliable and accurate data, as well as adding synthetic data to real data. The latter showing it provided more accuracy to the dataset. This can only be accomplished, when governance for data collection and access is being implemented and continuously reviewed for current applicability.
Most and fore all, I was pleased that government such as National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), as well as health care providers, associations / societies / consortia and industry presented this in a collaborative way. It is recognized that lots of AI tools are being developed, but it is a challenge to have access to data from and provide tools to the entire population, especially to under sourced areas which often are deprived from the latest technology. There is a clear and urgent to overcome this through collaborative partnerships between relevant stakeholders.
My point is even though I am all for that science talks, science is evidence and is needed. Though it is through partnerships and collaboration through which progress has been made and is going to made. Science talks. Collaborative partnerships make it happen.
