Artificial intelligence has gained a strong foothold in healthcare in recent years. However, major challenges remain, such as obtaining suitable data - in practice still mostly a matter of laborious handwork - and creating support among medical staff. Nienke Bakx, who recently completed her EngD Qualified Medical Engineer degree with honors, took on both challenges with great enthusiasm. She talks about them in this new episode of the Dutch-language science podcast Sound of Science.
Bakx (26) works at the Catharina Hospital in Eindhoven. There she spent the past two years researching the use of AI in making radiation plans for breast cancer patients, to ensure that the right dose is administered. The EngD student Qualified Medical Engineering also investigated whether the delineation of organs of breast cancer patients can be done quickly, accurately, and reliably by computer.
Data and support
"An important part of my work involved finding suitable data to train the algorithms. Which is largely manual work. It takes a lot of time and effort to clean up the data," Bakx says.
The brand-new EngD also spent considerable time creating support among medical staff. "It's really important that you share the results from your research as soon as possible so that people see that it works. Of course, it helps a lot if you have some pioneers among the staff that get their colleagues interested."
Bakx will continue to work at Catharina after completing her traineeship. She will work there partly as an AI researcher in the Radiotherapy Department. She will also play a key role in the establishment of a new Center of AI Expertise.
Listen to the podcast
In the latest episode of our science podcast Sound of Science, hear all about Nienke's research and her ambitions for AI in healthcare.