Professor Yanis Ben Amor - Columbia University

Professor Yanis Ben Amor discusses a report on AI in healthcare across the MENA region, highlighting a two-year partnership between FII and Columbia University. The discussion focuses on AI readiness in healthcare in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Jordan, revealing five key challenges: ambiguous governance, clinical workforce readiness, data fragmentation, evaluation, and top-down policy. Workforce readiness is a common weakness, impacting AI solution implementation. The professor emphasizes the importance of including patients and clinicians in AI solution design. Collaboration between countries in the MENA region is proposed to address disparities in AI readiness. Adapting education to prepare the workforce for AI tools is critical. Ethical guidelines are crucial for fostering AI innovation while protecting patients. The goal is to develop an index of AI preparedness and expand the study to other regions.