The Yuan requests your support! Our content will now be available free of charge for all registered subscribers, consistent with our mission to make AI a human commons accessible to all. We are therefore requesting donations from our readers so we may continue bringing you insightful reportage of this awesome technology that is sweeping the world. Donate now
The Yuan calls for opening medical data to the world
By Shifeng Wang  |  Jun 13, 2022
The Yuan calls for opening medical data to the world
Image courtesy of and under license from Shutterstock.com
The Yuan is dedicating our Open Medical Data debate series to the birthday of the father of modern artificial intelligence on June 23. Open medical data is an issue for the whole globe, one for both the developed and developing world alike. It is a tech issue and a health issue all in one. How important will open medical datasets be in future? We are trying to answer.

SHANGHAI - Disease recognizes no borders. It largely does not discriminate based on ethnicity or gender.

Sickle-cell anemia and breast and prostate cancers are all mere exceptions that prove this rule. All who do not perish early from accident or misadventure must eventually succumb to disease in some form. Any barriers to the free-flow of medical data - whether domestic or international - handicap medicine in its race against disease and pose a grave threat to us all.

One team of academics and industry leaders argues, “…the storage and processing of such a huge amount of data with variability in data formats pose many challenges. A computer model that can store, run, and analyze the massive amount of data simultaneously is required to overcome these technical challenges. It has been advocated by many that an open-access health data platform on a global scale is required to store, manage, and share citizen-owned health data by taking a transparent and protected approach,” they reported in OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology.

In this spirit, and in line with our foundational tenet that artificial intelligence and the data upon which it feeds must redound to the benefit of all, the select panel of our contributors we have convened for this purpose shall present their cases as follows:

Jeffrey Lee Funk will expound on Open Access: the Need for Independent Testing, but also talk incentives for high data quality. Faulty or inadequate data can cause AI algorithms to be less effective than they might be. Instead of just assuming more data is needed, a better focus would be on improving their quality.

Rohit Agrawal will argue that Open Access to Health Data Can Fix India's Healthcare, which is full of inefficiencies

The content herein is subject to copyright by The Yuan. All rights reserved. The content of the services is owned or licensed to The Yuan. Such content from The Yuan may be shared and reprinted but must clearly identify The Yuan as its original source. Content from a third-party copyright holder identified in the copyright notice contained in such third party’s content appearing in The Yuan must likewise be clearly labeled as such.
Continue reading
Sign up now to read this story for free.
- or -
Continue with Linkedin Continue with Google
Comments
Share your thoughts.
The Yuan wants to hear your voice. We welcome your on-topic commentary, critique, and expertise. All comments are moderated for civility.
z
zhouxin
2022-06-13
Welcome to join the debate!
Reply