AI in Healthcare: Bridging Technology and Humanity

Tom Braekeleirs is een healthnerd en innovatieleider op het gebied van digitale gezondheid. Hij heeft meer dan 25 jaar ervaring in de IT-industrie en werkte voor bedrijven als EDS-AT Kearney, Navision en Microsoft. In 2015 maakte hij een carrièreswitch om leiding te geven aan het BlueHealth Innovation Center, een vzw actief in digitalisering in de gezondheidszorg. Midden 2023 werd deze organisatie onderdeel van imec, waarna Tom spreker werd bij Nexxworks en Nexxtt.Health oprichtte. Hij is ook professor Digitale Medische Technologie aan de UGent (faculteit Gezondheidswetenschappen). Hij is adviseur, podcaster, spreker, docent en columnist over onderwerpen als de toekomst van gezondheid, digitale technologie en ondernemerschap. In 2022 ontving hij de PRoF Award for Innovation voor zijn bijdrage aan het bevorderen van digitale innovatie in de gezondheidszorg. Zijn persoonlijke motto is: "Change the world or go home!"

I am an Associate Professor at Ghent University and an intensivist at Ghent University Hospital, specializing in neuro-intensive care and burns. My career bridges clinical expertise, academic research, and innovation in healthcare data science.

In 2013, I completed my PhD on quality improvement through information technology, focusing on how digital tools can enhance patient care. This work laid the foundation for my passion for combining clinical practice with data-driven innovation.

I am the founder and medical director of the Data Science Institute (DSI) at UZ Gent, where I lead initiatives to integrate business intelligence and advanced data science into healthcare operations. My dual role as an ICU physician and DSI director allows me to connect frontline clinical care with cutting-edge data solutions.

Prof. dr. Maarten De Vos is hoogleraar aan de faculteiten Ingenieurswetenschappen en Geneeskunde van KU Leuven. Hij richt zich op het verbeteren van data science-benaderingen voor verschillende toepassingen in de gezondheidszorg. Zijn AI-oplossingen worden gebruikt op verschillende ziekenhuisafdelingen, variërend van neonatologie tot ouderenzorg.

Seppe Segers is a professor of ethics and moral science at the department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Ghent University.

His main research and teaching interests concern the domains of theoretical and substantive ethics, moral science and value theory.

Yves Moreau is a professor at KU Leuven ESAT STADIUS.

His team focuses on AI algorithms and software platforms for the integration of complex data in clinical genomics and drug discovery:

1. federated analysis of real-world clinical and genomic data,
2. data fusion algorithms for the identification of pathogenic genetic variation in rare genetic disorders and liquid biopsies, and
3. data fusion for drug discovery and drug design.

At the algorithmic level, Prof. Moreau focuses on the development of novel AI methods, such as deep learning and Bayesian matrix factorization, for the fusion of heterogeneous sparsely-observed data; and on privacy-preserving implementations of such methods. He aims at demonstrated clinical or industrial applicability of his methods and proven effectiveness in human genetics research and drug discovery.

Prof. Moreau is engaged in a reflection on how information technology and artificial intelligence are transforming our world and on how to make sure this transformation is beneficial for all. In particular, I am actively pushing back against the emergence of surveillance societies that has been made possible by such technological advances.

Prof. Moreau is am also a tech innovator interested in identifying relevant business models for emerging technologies and developing projects up to the precompetitive stage and the startup of university spin-offs. He is a co-founder of Data4S, a data mining company specialized in fraud detection and anti-moneylaundering, which is now part of BAE Systems, Detica NetReveal. He is also a co-founder of Cartagenia (taken over by Agilent Technologies), specialized in ICT solutions for clinical genetic diagnosis.

Sigrid Sterckx, PhD, is Professor of Ethics and Political and Social Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences of Ghent University. She is a founding member of the Bioethics Institute Ghent. She lectures courses in theoretical and applied ethics as well as social and political philosophy and global ethics. Her current research projects focus on: global justice (with particular attention to climate change and economic governance); human tissue research and biobanking; patenting in biomedicine and genomics; organ transplantation; neurosciences, criminal law and ethics; and end-of-life decisions.

She is a permanent research associate of the Centre for Health, Law, and Emerging Technologies, Department of Population Health, University of Oxford (UK), as well as an associate member of the Centre for the Study of Global Ethics, Department of Philosophy, the University of Birmingham (UK).

Sigrid also serves on various advisory committees, including the Belgian Advisory Committee on Bioethics, which advises the Federal Government of Belgium, and the Ethics Committee of Ghent University Hospital.

Sofie Van Hoecke graduated from the Engineering Department from the Ghent University in 2003. Following up on her studies in computer science, she achieved a PhD in computer science engineering at the Department of Information Technology at the same university on Efficient service management in healthcare. After being a postdoctoral research engineer at the Department of Information Technology, she started as lecturer ICT and ICT research coordinator at the University College West-Flanders. Currently, she is associate professor at Ghent University, IDLab - Data Science Lab.

Her specialties are: multi-sensor and service oriented architectures, novel services, condition monitoring, emotion recognition, machine learning, semantic dashboards, and the fusion of machine learning and semantic technologies, applied in both predictive maintenance and predictive healthcare.

Prof. Peter De Jaeger is director IT & data and the Chief Innovation Officer and leading RADar, the learning and innovation centre of AZ Delta. He holds a position at Hasselt University as a data science professor and a position as adjunct associate professor at University College Dublin. His working experience deals with project management, research & development, product development, clinical studies, data access/use/sharing.

I am a biostatistician with over 20 years of experience in the development of statistical methods for causal inference. I have spent most of my career at Ghent University, except for postdoctoral training under the guidance of Andrea Rotnitzky and James Robins at the Department of Biostatistics of the Harvard School of Public Health, and a part-time professorship as Professor of Statistical Methodology at the Department of Medical Statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine from 2017 to 2021.

I have had the privilege of serving as Co-Editor of Biometrics, the flagship journal of the International Biometric Society. Furthermore, I have contributed as an Associate Editor for several prestigious journals including the American Journal of Epidemiology, Biometrics, Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Epidemiologic Methods, the Journal of Causal Inference, and the Journal of the Royal Statistical SocietySeries B. I have been awarded an advanced ERC grant by the European Research Council in 2024.

Expertise: Causal machine learning, causal inference, statistical data analysis, semi-parametric statistics

Anastasiya Kiseleva is doing international and interdisciplinary PhD research funded and supported by the EUTOPIA program.

Her research is about balancing AI's transparency in healthcare with its safety and quality from legal and technical perspectives. The project is organised in collaboration between Vrije Universiteit Brussels as a home university (represented by the Research Group Law, Science, Technology and Society (LSTS) responsible for legal expertise) and CY Cergy University Paris as a host university (represented by ETIS Research Lab and leading the technical area of the project).

Anastasiya works on different topics in health law and technologies, including the European Health Data Space, AI-based medical devices, genetic testing and editing with AI. Her papers in the mentioned areas were top listed by the publishing journals and cited by the European Parliament and the European Commission. She is a member of Ethics Advisory Boards in several EU-funded projects such as DigiCare4You and Marvel. Since June 2023, she joined the Editorial Board of the European Health & Pharmaceutical Law Review. She acts as an external AI Policy Expert at EUMASS (the European Union of Medicine in Assurance and Social Security).

Anastasiya holds an LL.M. in IP & IT Law (EULISP) from Leibniz University Hannover (magna cum laude). Before fully focusing her career on academia, she has been previously practicing intellectual property and information technology law for more than 8 years.

• Project management of non-commercial medical device investigations
• Ethical committee and competent authority submission for medical device investigations
• Advise on regulatory, quality and clinical aspects during the design and development of medical devices in an academic setting
• Training on regulatory and clinical affairs for medical devices
• Setting up a quality management system for the conduct of clinical studies

Prof. Dr. Griet Verhenneman is Assistant Professor of Privacy Law at Ghent University. For more than 15 years, Griet has been working on IT law, developing a particular interest in the legal aspects of eHealth, privacy and data protection. At KU Leuven - CiTiP Prof. Verhenneman currently holds the position of lecturer on European Privacy and Data Protection Law in the Advanced Master IP – IT Law and is involved as an affiliated researcher in the health research group.

Expertise:

• Data quality and biases towards AI
• Explainability using data quality assessments
• Understanding data sources towards extracting and harmonizing data for training AI
• How AI might bring value in hospitals and specific towards creating more data quality maturity

Sofia Palmieri is a FWO Junior Postdoctoral Fellow at Ghent University and Healthcare AI Policy and Compliance Officer at the European Institute for Innovation through Health Data (i~HD). Her research is positioned at a crossroads between legal, ethics, AI and healthcare. She investigates the perimeter of regulation for the safe, patient-centred and evidence-based use of Artificial Intelligence in the medical field. After receiving a Master's Degree in Law (magna cum laude) from the University of Bologna, she specialized in Ethics and Life Science at the same Alma Mater. She spent a period of research both at Paris Nanterre University and at KU Leuven. She also joined AI4Health as a member of the core team. Recently, she started as co-chair of the Young Scholar Interest Group of the European Association of Health Law.

Doctor in de Rechten bij Sanalex Advocaten en gastprofessor bij UGent en UAntwerpen