A project led by the University of Barcelona, GenAIMIX, will develop new generative artificial intelligence (AI) assistants for hospitals with limited resources, with the aim of improving healthcare in countries with limited financial resources. The project's principal investigator is Karim Lekadir, an ICREA researcher at the UB's Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science and head of the BCN-AIM research group, which has been awarded a Proof of Concept grant from the European Research Council. The funding will amount to 150,000 euros.
AI-powered conversational assistants can be a great tool for improving healthcare in resource-poor countries, where a shortage of specialists makes it impossible to carry out high-quality diagnostic imaging. These systems offer intuitive guidance and enable medical and nursing staff with minimal training to acquire images and interpret the results.
However, current generative AI technologies have been developed in high-income countries and are aimed at well-resourced hospitals. This means that these technologies cannot be implemented in low-resource settings due to their computational requirements, their reliance on cloud connectivity, and their inability to operate in local languages.
