By : Thought leaders from academia and medical practice explored how artificial intelligence can advance children’s health care at the second annual Children’s National Hospital-Virginia Tech Symposium on AI for Pediatric Health at the Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus in Washington, D.C.
Rowland Illing, chief medical officer and director of international public sector health at Amazon Web Services (AWS), discussed the transformative impact of AI, machine learning and cloud technology.
As a radiologist, Illing highlighted the example of how the tools enable clinicians to interpret screenings more quickly and accurately, addressing the growing global demand for faster diagnoses, better patient outcomes and broader access to medical expertise.
He also highlighted the importance of collaboration to drive these advances.
“Incorporating AI into pediatric care isn’t just about technology. Successful implementation of sophisticated technology into the health care system requires strategic partnerships with like-minded organizations to identify challenges and create solutions,” Illing said. “The collaboration between Children’s National and Virginia Tech couples deep clinical expertise with cutting edge technology research. These two organizations, powered by AWS as the world’s most secure and resilient computing platform, will accelerate health care innovation to improve efficiency of the health system and outcomes for patients.”
Combined efforts between Virginia Tech and Children’s National are yielding tangible results, said conference co-director Naren Ramakrishnan, director of the Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics and the Thomas L. Phillips Professor in the Virginia Tech College of Engineering.
Ramakrishnan emphasized the importance of expertise when integrating AI into pediatric health care.
“To effectively deploy technologies like generative AI in pediatric medicine, we must ensure that those interpreting the outputs are well-trained and deeply knowledgeable in the field,” Ramakrishnan said. “While the potential is immense, we can’t rely on AI-generated results without proper safeguards in place.”
Conference co-director Marius George Linguraru of Children’s National highlighted the importance of training both pediatric specialists and AI systems to address the distinct needs of young patients, who require tailored approaches.
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