May 2024: News and Inspiration from Nova Scotia
Be inspired by “Inspiration Makers!” and upcoming events, highlights & programming for Nova Scotia in May !
Project Highlight
Truro Elementary School, Truro, NS
Remember the Grade 1–2 — students and their houses from last month? They were so impressed with the Make-Dos they just couldn’t stop making.
Realizing that the community of houses filled up rather a lot of the classroom they planned together a new building that incorporated all the best features of each structure into one splendid house. They moved this to the corner of the classroom to become a quiet reading area. Next, with some of the remaining pieces of cardboard, they fashioned head to toe suits to turn themselves into very impressive robots.
Then, inspired by all the snow, the students planned a new style of building, an Igloo! On completion the structure was so impressive it was donated to another classroom to be used as their reading space. Still brilliant, Ms Blaauwedraat’s class!
Don’t forget to join the NS Innovation Fair At Kings County Academy on June 11th!
Register your student’s projects & learn more at BrilliantLabs.ca/NS-IF !
Inspiration Makers!
This year Brilliant Labs is looking for teachers and students who inspire others to be their best and who are taking chances to innovate education through hands-on STEAM learning. This month, Will Collins from Brilliant Labs was invited to participate in Talking Tech’ speaker series by Digital Nova Scotia about technology in Healthcare and we’re pleased to share some highlights of the conversation.
AI in Healthcare Applications, Talking Tech’ speaker series by Digital Nova Scotia
As a part of a ‘Talking Tech’ speaker series hosted by Digital Nova Scotia, Brilliant labs contributed to thoughts on what the future of healthcare might look like as it pertains to Artificial Intelligence and digital transformation.
The conversation of the series revolved around how dramatically things have changed with technology and how to keep up.
Different disciplines of computer science and healthcare are individually siloed and have minimal overlap but the potential for implementation is immense.
Given that all of Canada has a consolidated healthcare system on a province by province basis many of the digital tools ease the burden of administration. While it might seem easier to have a consolidated healthcare system it also raises the potential for systemic overload in which an overabundance of disorganized information yields poorer outcomes if not properly managed.
What could it mean to have Artificial Intelligence (AI) rolled out in healthcare?
If we were to have a computer program capable of making medical decisions it might take the brunt of decision making off of healthcare professionals. There is the potential for Healthcare-AI to be either a force for good or a force for disruption and this depends largely on how the technology is rolled out.
For instance, when patients go to the doctor and receive a ‘biopsy’, in which a sample of tissue is taken for analysis, the sample must be processed and imaged to see if it contains cancerous, infected or diseased cells. This process of biopsy collection, fixation, staining and imaging is quite laborious and requires specialized personnel. An example might include a biopsy for skin cancer which would require a trained medical professional to determine if it is ‘abnormal’. Computer vision is capable of doing such image analysis and providing medical recommendations with a great deal of accuracy. This would limit the need for human intervention to making a decision call rather than cycling through hundreds upon hundreds of images.
Potential for misuse of Healthcare-AI
The potential for misuse of Healthcare-AI is also immense as well. Should the medical data of patients be compromised and taken by hacker groups it makes those individuals subject to exploitation. Many hospital networks have been the subject of ‘lockout events’ in which passwords are changed and no longer have access to a breadth of patient medical information. Subsequently this will mean that patients cannot receive their medications or upcoming appointments for surgeries if ‘locked out’. Imagine a scenario in which an individual that requires administration of insulin for treatment of diabetes but cannot get access to the medication due to a hacker ‘lockout event’. The results could be devastating.
In closing, what can you and the Brilliant Labs community do about taking part in digital health?
We at BL encourage students and learners to not just use technology but to create it as well.
Through a process of ‘participatory design’ we might take apart an existent technology and conceive of ways in which it can be modified to suit our needs. Perhaps something like a health technology could be simple like changing colors to reflect our moods. In fact many heart rate monitors can be run off of platforms like our B.board, the microbit, arduino or Raspberry Pi allowing students to tinker with how they might personalize it. The digital healthcare future is coming and we had best be prepared.
For more insights, read the whole article written by Will Collins, BioInnovation Director at Brilliant Labs: The future of healthcare: AI and digital transformation
Special thank you to the Department of Education for supporting NS Teachers & Students through Brilliant Labs hands-on STEAM learning activities/experiences.
Want to nominate a teacher or student working with Brilliant Labs in Nova Scotia? Send your nomination to us!
