Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1497035
wbjournal.com | April 17, 2023 | Worcester Business Journal 13 populations, said Rundensteiner. Accord- ing to a 2021 report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, less than 5% of clinical trial participants are Black. "If the data is biased and you give it to an algorithm, then the system might be neutral, but the bias is already baked in," she said. Helpful for certain populations Dr. Neil Marya, a gastroenterology specialist at UMass Memorial Health and assistant professor at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, is research- ing new diagnostic tools for pancreatic cancer and bile duct cancer. While a few years from clinical use, said Marya, the technologies are showing promise through observational use. e AI is trained on tens of thousands of image and video data points from pa- tients with and without cancer. e goal is to use computer learning to diagnose cancer, but for now, it is not enough to rely on for a definitive diagnosis. "We're not acting on the AI right now. It's just in the background, and we are un- derstanding how it works in these cases," Marya said. For now, humans outrank the technology in declaring something cancerous or noncancerous. ey will not yet use the technology to recommend chemotherapy or surgery without a defin- itive biopsy, he said. In some cases, the AI has said some- thing is cancer far before a pathologist has been able to make a diagnosis, Marya said. However, at other times, it has been incorrect, giving a false negative. In either case, the data the AI is pulling from is potentially more useful for certain demographic groups than others. "It would stand to reason to say, 'AI, should super- sede all that im- plicit bias since it's not influenced by one's upbringing or other things.' But the issue is that for a lot of these AI models that we're developing, they're being developed at these major academic medical centers in areas or regions where there are only certain types of patients that are getting access to the care that generate the data necessary to create these artificial intelli- gence models," Marya said. H E A LT H C A R E F O C U S Thank you to our Sponsors PRESENTING SPONSORS GOLD SPONSORS 2023 and People of Courage Awards Inspiration & Innovation Laura Marotta & Stacy Lord/ Creative Hub Worcester People's Choice Sayon Barari Volunteer Jay Bry Young Adult Marvin Nuñez Community Champion Joshua Croke Youth Quinn Nimtz Social Justice Advocacy and Action Nativity School of Worcester 2023 PEOPLE OF COURAGE AWARDEES Safe Homes is a program of Open Sky Community Services, serving LGBTQIA+ youth ages 14-23. Learn more at safehomesma.org Exceptional Care – For Families and Community. For Family & Community notredame healthcare.org • Assisted Living Residence • Skilled Nursing Facility • Residential Memory Care • Short Term Rehabilitation • Adult & Pediatric Hospice • Pediatric Palliative Care • Educational Resource Center • Spiritual Care 555-559 Plantation Street Worcester, MA 01605 (508) 470-0065 Contact us to learn more about the mission-driven, not-for-profit difference at Notre Dame Health Care. Notre Dame Health Care Elke Rundensteiner's research at WPI focuses on effective use of data. Continued on next page