AI has potential to reduce inequity in Philippine healthcare

By Patricia B. Mirasol, Producer

Depending on how it’s designed, artificial intelligence (AI) may be able to reduce inequities in Philippine healthcare, according to medical experts at the AI Horizons PH 2024 event. 

“We should…discover new ways to implement what we already know,” said Dr. Antonio Miguel L. Dans, professor emeritus of the University of the Philippines (UP) Manila’s College of Medicine.  

AI isn’t only for the rich, he said on day two of the conference by the University of the Philippines Bonifacio Global City. 

“We can increase the likelihood of reducing inequities…depending on how we design it,” he said on October 25. 

In its Ethics and governance of artificial intelligence for health: Guidance on large multi-modal models, the World Health Organization highlighted the importance of developing AI technologies in a way that addresses biases, so health inequities are not perpetuated. 

The guidelines, published in January 2024, also said AI technologies should be made accessible and affordable to all, particularly to the most vulnerable.  

“Let’s focus our research on narrowing the gap by discovering new ways of doing old things, like Efren, which is a new way of…checking on our patient,” Dr. Dans said. 

“If that can be done for those with less, then it’s something that can actually help bridge the gap,” he added. 

Efren is a chatbot that assesses diabetes distress (or the emotional response of living with diabetes) among Filipino patients. 

Diabetes distress can lead to adverse outcomes like reduced physical activity and less healthy eating, according to Dr. Iris Thiele Isip-Tan, professor 12 of UP Manila-College of Medicine’s Medical Informatics Unit. 

“I know firsthand that physicians may have limited time to assess diabetes distress,” said Dr. Tan, whose team is designing the conversational agent. 

“Patients may also not be expected to ask – nor wish to talk about – their emotional state,” she said at the same event. 

For the diabetes distress scale, moreover, “there are actual questions about the physician like ‘Do you feel that your doctor does not take your concerns seriously enough?’” 

Underpinning all AI endeavors such as Efren is data, a component of the Genomics Philippines Initiative, which will sequence the genomes of 25,000 Filipinos by 2030. 

Filipinos need their own database with their own genomes represented, according to Dr. Felicitas L. Lacbawan, executive director of the Philippine Genome Center (PGC). 

This, she said, will allow for a more precise and accurate interpretation of their test results. 

“The PGC is taking baby steps in transforming laboratory services towards accessible, affordable…genomics testing for Filipinos,” she told the audience of the October 25 event. 

“If we can drive cost of sequencing down, we’re happy with it,” Dr. Lacbawan added.