By Reagan Malenius
This week, the UF Health Cancer Center hosted its 3rd Annual AI Day in Cancer Research, drawing speakers and attendees from a range of disciplines, such as engineering, public health, data science and radiology, to learn more about the role of AI in cancer research.
The event included opportunities to network with the Cancer Center’s AI Working Group, led by Mattia Prosperi, Ph.D., FAMIA, and Qing Lu, Ph.D., Ji-Hyun Lee, DrPH, director of the Cancer Center’s Division of Quantitative Sciences, and other researchers.
Lee, a professor in the department of biostatistics, introduced how AI technology in oncology is helping with multidimensional data generated in routine patient care. Working with AI is no simple task, involving complex data science, but it has potential to generate usability in clinical practice and health policy, Lee said.
The day was filled with fun activities and prizes, a catered lunch, speakers from the University of Florida, and two external guest speakers.
Keynote speaker Despina Kontos, Ph.D., the Matthew J. Wilson Professor of Research Radiology II and associate vice-chair for research in the department of radiology at the University of Pennsylvania, gave a presentation on radiomics, radiogenomics and AI in breast and lung cancer research. Kontos shared how AI assists in developing image analysis, pattern recognition and data mining, as well as the role of imaging as a biomarker for personalized clinical decisions in cancer.
Attendees also heard from guest speaker Andrew Janowcyzk, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Tech School of Engineering and Emory University School of Medicine, on computational pathology in precision medicine.
Dejana Braithwaite, Ph.D., associate director for population sciences at the UF Health Cancer Center, discussed recent research on the accuracy of AI chatbots at providing cancer screening advice. Her research found that chatbots effectively answered basic questions on cancer screening and prevention, but accuracy declined for nuanced topics and questions without clear clinical guidelines.
These lectures provided an enriching opportunity to learn more about AI advancements and its applications in cancer research, as well as stimulated potential new collaborations for multidisciplinary research projects across the university.
AI Day in Cancer Research was hosted by the UF Health Cancer Center’s Division of Quantitative Sciences, Cancer AI Working Group, Biostatistics & Computational Biology Shared Resource, and Cancer Informatics Shared Resource. To learn more about AI research at the Cancer Center, connect with the Cancer AI Working Group.
Thank you to all our speakers!
- Despina Kontos, Ph.D.: “Radiomics, radiogenomics and AI: The emerging role of imaging biomarkers in precision cancer care”
- Ruogu Fang, Ph.D.: “AI approach for imaging data 101”
- Andrew Janowczyk, Ph.D.: “Computational pathology toward precision medicine”
- Carlos Rinaldi-Ramos, Ph.D.: “Magnetic particle imaging (MPPI)”
- Dejana Braithwaite, Ph.D.: “How accurate are AI chat bots at providing cancer screening advice?”
- Reza Forghani, M.D., Ph.D.: “Impactful artificial intelligence tool development and adoption in radiology: Opportunities and challenges”
