Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an umbrella term that encompasses predictive modeling, machine learning, and automated decision making. The last five years have seen an explosion in the field, enabled by the availability of low-cost GPU based hardware, diverse data sources at unprecedented scale and levels of detail in a variety of domains, and open-source deep learning algorithms. Rice University and the University of Houston, with established Computer Science departments, are powerhouses in the area. Simultaneously, applications of AI in all branches of health care, have also exploded. The hard-core medical research institutions in the GCC (BCM, TAMUHSC, UTH, UTMB, and MDACC) all host numerous application areas of interest. While the underlying methodologies for AI can be developed in the abstract, there is enormous potential for the definition of both broad and specific use-cases in the health care arena and natural optimization of AI methods for these use cases.