Ministry of Health employs AI tech in various realms

Kuwait Ministry of Health has started using artificial intelligence techniques in various realms namely for diagnosis and treatment and has begun training cadres on the emerging technology.

The AI has proven useful in diverse medical fields, particularly radioactive diagnosis, surgeries and scientific research, affirmed Dr. Suleiman Al-Mazidi, the chief surgeon at Jaber Hospital in an interview with KUNA.

The ministry is also using AI techniques at hospitals for various tasks including clinical care, researches, production of medicines and overhauling administrative operations.

Al-Mazidi has confirmed that the AI decreases medical errors, facilitates operations and shortens surgeries’ duration, adding that the latest technology has been used at Jaber Hospital for surgeries, endoscopic operations, indocyanine green enhanced fluorescence (ICG) apparatuses in addition to the employment of aiding robots.

Jaber Hospital had witnessed a surgery with the Olympus device for the first time in the Gulf, he said, indicating that surgeons in these procedures are aided with 3D devices that screen patients’ internal organs.

Moreover, the hospital had also conducted the first endoscopic operation with the AI technology for pin pointing tumors in the colon and the stomach — for the first time in Kuwait. He explained that the technology uncovers tumors that cannot be detected with the naked eye.

He declared that a division for training staff on the AI at the hospital would be inaugurated in October.

The hospital, he has added, already has a special ward, called “the virtual division,” where doctors are trained on state of art techniques. (KUNA)