Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) Dr. Fazıl Küçük Medicine Faculty academic staff member and Neonatal Intensive Care Specialist and Pediatrician Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nilüfer Güzoğlu represented EMU at the 30th National Neonatology Congress held in Antalya where hosted many national and international neonatologists, pediatricians and nurses.

Delivering a presentation titled “Can Artificial Intelligence be Pro-Neonatal in the New Age?” during the congress, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nilüfer Güzoğlu touched on the use of artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector. During her speech, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Güzoğlu said: “The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare services has accelerated in the recent years. Digital technologies are used in many areas such as online scheduling of appointments, electronic medical records, creation of appointments, creation of childhood vaccination calendars, as well as smart watches and other wearable technologies. Moreover, studies are being carried out on disease diagnosis. On the other hand, physical artificial intelligence is is used in robotic surgeries and is reported to shorten the problems that may occur due to surgery”.

Talking about the importance of Artificial Intelligence especially in neonatal intensive care units, the studies in the literature on this subject in recent years, ethical dilemmas and futuristic perspective, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Güzoğlu continued her words as follows: “Being one of the complex and sensitive healthcare fields, the Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) are ideal environments to benefit from AI. In such a way that, with both the technological developments in NICU and the new developments in medical data storing, we have more data than ever before for clinical decision making in the NICU.

However, currently all the healthcare data are stored in separate systems and healthcare professionals must track down simultaneously all data from different systems. The need to monitor so much data instantly is a serious problem in terms of trained manpower in this field. On the other hand, it is not always possible to predict which newborn is at risk of worsening in the general condition, even with frequent observations. If artificial intelligence is to be used, it is predicted that a much more rapid and accurate analysis of the data can be carried out. Therefore, negative outcomes can be prevented before-hand. Another issue is that the AI is a system that is not affected from factors such as tiredness, sleeplessness, doctor’s experience and knowledge, etc. In summary, Artificial Intelligence’s future in NICU is expected to be promising and that we need to be familiar with this technology and developments in this regard for the sake of our patients’ wellbeing”.