Data Science and Medical Sciences (Lecture in Dutch)
Data science is playing an increasingly significant role in medicine. Professor André Dekker and his team are building a global medical data infrastructure and using machine learning to mine it for new information. This has already resulted in algorithms that predict the outcome of administering specific treatments to specific patients. Though the process is not straightforward, given the privacy issues, difficulty of combining information that may be structured in different ways and the many languages involved, the results are well worth it. By harnessing artificial intelligence, the medical world will be able to characterise tumours with more precision and more accurately predict chances of survival, thus enabling doctors and patients to make better treatment decisions. (Lecture is in Dutch)
Stadskasteel Oudaen
About the speaker
Prof. Andre Dekker is a board-certified medical physicist at MAASTRO Clinic and full professor at Maastricht UMC+ and Maastricht University, where he holds the chair in Clinical Data Science. His research focuses on three main themes: building global data-sharing infrastructures, machine-learning cancer outcome prediction modelling based on this data, and applying outcome prediction models to improve the lives of cancer patients. His main scientific breakthrough has been the development of a Semantic Web and ontology-based data sharing and distributed learning infrastructure that does not require data to leave the hospital. This has reduced many of the ethical and other barriers to data sharing.
This lecture is part of traditional series of lectures for alumni; the UM Star Lectures. The other 13 lectures are organized in 13 different cities and 5 countries on the same day at the same time. This event is organized to reach out to and inspire alumni, share academic insights, experiences and memories and to create an interconnected UM Alumni Community.