Laura Rosella

Professor Laura C. Rosella is the Stephen Family Research Chair in Community Health at the Institute for Better Health and is an epidemiology professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Dr. Rosella holds Canada Research Chair in Population Health Analytics. She is the Education Lead for the Temerty Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Education in Medicine and Associate Director of Education at the Data Science Institute. She leads the AI for Public Health Research Training Platform (AI4PH) focused on establishing an AI workforce in public health. She has authored over 260 peer-reviewed publications, was named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 and inducted into the Royal Society of Canada’s (RSC) College of New Scholars.

About the keynote: 

AI and digital technology: What do they mean for the future of health

The role of data and analytics has never been more important in society and, in particular, for health applications. There has been a rapid change in the nature of data used in health research and an increased focus on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the analysis of those emerging data sources. There are many conflicting points of view on the utility of AI in a health context and a lack of clarity on the implications for the health systems more generally. This talk will cover the myths, the debates, and the skepticism (from all sides) and outline a proposed direction for the role of AI in the future of health. We will additionally cover the intersection of AI with a precision public health frame and the potential impact and unintended consequences of this framing. The talk will include implications related to bias, health equity, surveillance and causal inference. The talk will conclude by summarizing the implications for epidemiology research and training across ethics and health domains.