DLS Talk by Ross Mitchell, University of Alberta

Speaker:  Dr. J. Ross Mitchell, Canada CIFAR AI Chair, U. of A.

Title:  Generative AI in Healthcare

Abstract:

This presentation provides an overview of the transformative potential of Generative AI in healthcare. The talk begins with the evolution of AI from early rule-based systems to modern transformer architectures, emphasizing the significant computational investments required for training large language models.

The presentation examines three key application areas: Medical Documentation, where AI systems can automatically analyze clinical reports and extract relevant medical information with high accuracy; AI Scribes & Assistants, which record patient encounters and generate clinical notes, significantly reducing documentation burden and improving physician productivity and satisfaction; and Medical Imaging, leveraging foundation models for automated organ segmentation and disease detection across various medical imaging modalities.

A central theme is the importance of secure, private infrastructure for processing sensitive healthcare data, enabling organizations to deploy open-source AI models while maintaining data privacy and compliance requirements. The presentation demonstrates real-world implementations across major healthcare systems, showing substantial adoption rates and positive outcomes.

Looking forward, the vision extends toward comprehensive ambient AI assistance that supports healthcare workflows before, during, and after patient encounters - from pre-visit preparation and real-time clinical decision support to post-visit documentation and patient communication. The ultimate goal is to reduce administrative burden on healthcare providers while enhancing care quality and patient satisfaction, representing a paradigm shift in how AI can augment healthcare delivery.

Bio:

Dr. Mitchell holds a Canada CIFAR AI Chair and the Alberta Health Services Chair in AI in Health. He is a Professor in the Department of Medicine and an Adjunct Professor in Computer Science at the University of Alberta, and a Fellow at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute. Previously, he was the inaugural AI Officer at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida (2019-2021), and a Professor of Radiology at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona (2011-2019), where he founded the Division of Medical Imaging Informatics. From 2000 to 2011, he served as a Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Radiology, and Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Calgary. Dr. Mitchell earned his PhD from Western University in Ontario and has dedicated three decades to advancing biomedical imaging, AI, and machine learning in healthcare.  

Host:  Mark Schmidt, UBC Computer Science