Artificial Intelligence: Risks and Advantages in Medicine

Artificial intelligence has developed rapidly in recent years, and significant social and economic impacts are already being felt. Major companies such as Facebook and Amazon have been implicated in data collection scandals and machine automation raises fears no longer just about massive job losses, but also the emergence of other risks, such as potentially biased decisions by machines. 

This rapid and potentially invasive growth of AI raises many questions.

• Automation-spurred job loss.
• Privacy violations.
• 'Deepfakes'
• Algorithmic bias caused by bad data.
• Socioeconomic inequality.
• Market volatility.
• Weapons automatization

However, Artificial Intelligence is a powerful technology that promises to vastly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of health-care delivery, and usher in the era of precision medicine, transforming our everyday lives. It is helping accelerate basic biomedical research, delivering insights into disease pathophysiology, and guiding new treatment discovery. It is optimizing clinical trials and translational research, bringing us closer to new treatments faster. 

At a time when the health-care system is under more strain than ever, AI promises to revolutionize health-care delivery by capitalizing on the totality of health-related data in order to optimize clinical decision-making for each individual and improve access to health-care for all. 

To deliver such promises, it is required to bring together basic and applied researchers, engineers, and clinicians to address the many outstanding challenges in a timely and responsible manner.  And here is a great reading on such interesting theme.

The Science of Learning

The Science of Learning summarizes existing cognitive-science research on how students learn, and connects it to practical implications for teaching. The report is a resource for teacher-educators, new teachers, and anyone in the education profession who is interested in how learning takes place.


Deans for Impact believes all teacher-candidates should know the cognitive-science principles explored in The Science of Learning. And all educators, including new teachers, should be able to connect those principles to their practical implications for the classroom.

Click to download

When it comes to change, "tiny is mighty"

Changing behaviors can feel like a monumental task. The most common is the pressure we put in ourselves to GO BIG or nothing. Not surprisingly, big expectations are often unrealistic, a recipe for disappointment and self-criticism.

B.J.Fogg defends we should think small because tiny behaviors that can become strong habits. And, when it comes to change, tiny is mighty. So, start with two pushups a day, not a two-hour workout. Take 5 deep breaths each morning rather than 1 hour of meditation.  Make it easy, make it fit to your life, and make it rewarding. 

https://tinyhabits.com/book/

The myth of bringing your full, authentic self to work

Calls for authenticity at work ask for passionate people with diverse, fresh perspectives who challenge old ways of thinking. But too often workplace culture fails to support the authenticity of professionals of color and other groups, leading instead to backlash and fewer opportunities. 

Writer Jodi-Ann Burey outlines steps toward exposing privilege and achieving true equity on the job, and implores those in leadership positions to accept responsibility for change. What a wonderful tak at TED, last November 2020.

2020 - A year in review

There was no way of knowing at about the onrushing train of 2020 would bring. 

From manifestations of systemic racism to w worldwide level pandemic and deadly flu-like disease, this has been a year with a series of rolling disasters. 

And, as human nature often shows, in the midst of the tragedies there was courage, there was grace, there was sacrifice, there was hope—there were people faced with the very worst rising up to be their very best. 

A short video for a collective memory of 2020.

Children may experience ‘Social Cravings’ from prolonged isolation

Many children have grown especially lonely during this pandemic and quarantine days. There is much still need to learn about loneliness, the brain, and mental health, however scientists know that youth needs socialization for healthy development. 

Moreover, loneliness is associated with clinical depression and anxiety, even if manifestations only are seen months later. Although the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are unknown, experts have urged clinicians should prepare to confront the mental health consequences of children who are separated from friends and family they had bonds with outside of their household.

Learn more reading this article

Human brains like happy endings — and that can lead to bad decisions

People prefer experiences that end on a positive note over ones that start out well but end poorly ... even if sometimes that gets in the way of making smart decisions. 

Human bias for happy endings stems from activity in the brain’s reward system, accordingly to results reported October 19 in Journal of Neuroscience. 

Researchers scanned the brains of 27 men while they watched a screen showing virtual coins falling into two pots. The bigger the coin’s size, the higher its value. Larger and larger coins fell into one pot, while the coins falling into the other pot started out large and then got smaller. People who correctly guessed which pot contained the most money had more activity in the amygdala, an almond-shaped structure in each hemisphere that processes emotion. Greater activation in an area called the anterior insula predicted incorrect choices: people picked the pots that seemed to hold more money simply because bigger and bigger coins fell into them. In other words, the happy ending bias overrode an accurate calculation of the pot’s value.

More at 

https://www.jneurosci.org/content/40/46/8938