Forging Connections in Latin America to Advance AI in Radiology

Abstract

The first Latin American Meeting on Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare was held during the 2022 Jornada Paulista de Radiologia (JPR), the annual radiology meeting in São Paulo State. The event was created to foster the discussion among Latin American countries about the maturity, challenges, and opportunities in developing and using AI in those countries. Technological improvements in artificial intelligence (AI) have created high expectations in health care. AI is recognized increasingly as a game-changer in clinical radiology. To counter the fear that AI would “take over” radiology, the program included activities to educate radiologists. The development of AI in Latin America is on its early days, but although there are some pioneer cases, many regions still lack world-class technological infrastructure and resources. Legislation, regulation and public policies in data privacy and protection, digital health and AI are recent advances in many countries. The meeting program was developed with a broad scope strategy, with expertise from different countries, backgrounds, and specialties, with the objective to ensure all levels of maturity (from basic concepts to advanced techniques), perspectives (clinical, technical, ethical, and business/management) and specialties (both informatics/data science experts and the usual radiology clinical groups). It was an opportunity to connect with peers from other countries and share lessons learned about AI in health care in different countries and contexts.