As 2022 comes to a close, we’d like to take the opportunity to highlight some of the many achievements of the AAAiH and its members this year.
This time last year we had just launched our Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare in Australia. The Roadmap contains 24 recommendations across eight priority areas, covering critical issues such as safety quality and ethics, industry development and consumer needs. The overall aim of the Roadmap is to set the target for a fully funded national plan by 2025 that will create an AI-enabled Australian healthcare system capable of delivery personalised healthcare, safely and ethically.
At the start of this year we made it our priority to circulate the Roadmap as widely as possible and through many meetings, conferences and workshops, the Alliance leadership showcased the need for national and co-ordinated action. 2022 also provided a renewed opportunity to meet with each other, and with international colleagues following the relaxation of border controls. AI Alliance members were involved in organising events and activities including:
- The Australian Centre for Health Engagement, Evidence and Values (ACHEEV) webinar: Algorithmic bias in healthcare Artificial Intelligence: Scientific accuracy and social justice.
- The first Emerging Researchers in Health Informatics Symposium (ERHIC) was organised by the new Research Network of the Australasian Institute of Digital Health (AIDH)
- AI in Healthcare – Towards Transparent & Explainable AI in Healthcare. An International Workshop led by Macquarie University researchers who presented the results of a pilot project focusing on the need for AI transparency and explainability by clinicians and patients.
- The Alliance was invited by the Therapeutic Goods Alliance (TGA) to participate in International Medical Device Regulators Forum / Global Medical Technology Alliance (GMTA) joint workshop on Updates and Considerations for Artificial Intelligence Medical Devices.
- Several members of the Safety, Quality and Ethics (SQE) AAAiH working group provided feedback to the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR) about their ethical principles to guide the use of AI in radiology.
In the coming year AAAiH will be focusing on translating the AI Roadmap into action, and is partnering with the Australian Digital Health Agency, The Australian Institute of Digital Health, and the Digital Health CRC on how best to make that happen. There’s still plenty of work to be done and with a new Government, the hope is that Australia will be able to capitalise on the potential of AI in Healthcare.
We’ll be back in 2023 with more information on how members can participate in this crucial next step to creating an AI-powered Australian Health system. I look forward to working with you all to make that happen.
Professor Enrico Coiera
Director
Australian Alliance for AI in healthcare