Naag dhimatay 💛💛🇸🇴

Exposome science in neurodegenerative conditions at the NI, UCT.

One challenge in our setting is that by the time a doctor requests a brain scan, the outcome is not favourable. Neurologists, neurosurgeons, and psychiatrists may request these scans for interpretation. But brain researchers go a step further. We ask... What does the scan look like before and during the disease? WHY? Here is the thing... not everyone can afford these scans. They are costly. Few hospitals have them. Few specialists are around who can interpret them. However, if you have enough scans, you can detect early signs of a disease process before a clinical diagnosis could reveal it. But not only that... Because interpreting the scan alone is prone to spurious correlations. Therefore, we need standard clinical contexts that distinguish meaningful biological signals from noise. So that the next time, a non-specialist could use the standard clinical approach to offer a prediction on what your brain might be saying. But we need many scans first 😊 That’s where the potential for early detection lies.

Clinical training builds competency. A competent MO or Pharmacist can transfer that competency across disciplines. Research included.

Now that the lecturers are on strike, let's meet with comrades to discuss what's happening at the frontier of AI for disease detection and drug testing. @afiadata_ke