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The Department of Artificial Intelligence at the Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka Metropolitan University (OMU), was honored to host Dr. Rupa Sarkar, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet Digital Health, for a special event on Thursday, March 27, 2025. This significant occasion coincided with our department's opening ceremony, marking an exciting milestone in our journey that officially began in April 2024.

Open Session: Publishing Excellence in The Lancet

The day began with an open session featuring Dr. Sarkar's presentation on "Publishing Excellence in The Lancet." Dr. Sarkar provided valuable insights into The Lancet's prestigious history and its continued commitment to cutting-edge medical research.

The Lancet's Rich History and Digital Evolution

Dr. Sarkar highlighted The Lancet's foundation in 1823 by Thomas Wakley as a reformist medical journal, tracing its evolution to the launch of The Lancet Digital Health in 2019. This specialized publication focuses on digital health technologies, including artificial intelligence, wearables, biosensors, digital epidemiology, and telemedicine.

AI Applications in Clinical Care

The presentation showcased compelling examples of AI applications in healthcare:

• Breast cancer screening innovations in Sweden
• Cardiac disease detection from chest X-rays (including our research)
• Pulmonary function estimation from chest X-rays (also our research)
• AI contributions to COVID-19 response

Challenges and Future Directions

Dr. Sarkar addressed current challenges in the AI healthcare field, including data collection issues, the global divide in AI access, the need for explainable AI, and environmental concerns related to AI systems.

Looking toward the future, she discussed the emergence of generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs), introduced the STANDING TOGETHER initiative with its 29 recommendations for inclusive AI datasets, and emphasized the importance of developing standards for AI in medicine, referencing frameworks like SPIRIT-AI and CONSORT-AI.

Closed Session: Collaboration with The Lancet Digital Health

Following Dr. Sarkar's presentation, our team shared the accomplishments and vision in a closed session.

About Our University and Department

We introduced OMU as Japan's largest public university, formed in 2022 through the merger of two universities with histories dating back to the 1880s, now serving 16,000 students and boasting connections to two Nobel laureates.

We produced over 60 papers in just five years. We maintain advanced computing infrastructure including GDX A100, RTX 6000 Ada, A6000, and TitanV GPUs with 3PB storage.

Research Achievements and Focus Areas

We proudly shared our two Japanese-certified medical devices for detecting cerebral aneurysms and lung nodules, and our privileged access to Japan's largest medical database containing 3 million exams.

Our research philosophy was illustrated through a Venn diagram showing three key areas:

1. The intersection of human and AI capabilities (collaborative systems)
2. Unique AI capabilities (detecting patterns humans cannot see)
3. Unique human capabilities (that AI cannot replicate)

Published Research Highlights

We showcased our groundbreaking work in extracting previously undetectable information from X-rays, including:

• Cardiac disease detection from chest X-rays
• Pulmonary function estimation from chest X-rays
• Using X-rays as an aging biomarker

We also highlighted our meta-analysis demonstrating that generative AI performs equivalently to non-specialist physicians in diagnostic tasks.

Ethical Focus and Collaboration Opportunities

We emphasized our commitment to fairness in healthcare AI, sustainability, and minimizing the environmental impact of AI systems.

Several potential collaboration opportunities with The Lancet Digital Health were proposed:

• Developing themed series on fairness and sustainability in healthcare AI
• Reviews on topics like radiation reduction using AI, physicians' mental health in the AI era, and cybersecurity in healthcare

Opening Ceremony

The day concluded with our department's official opening ceremony. Although our department was established in April 2024, the past year has served as a preparation period. The ceremony marked our true beginning and the inauguration of our new facilities on the 17th floor of the university.

Dr. Sarkar's visit provided invaluable insights and opened doors for future collaboration between our institution and The Lancet Digital Health. We are grateful for this opportunity and look forward to contributing to the advancement of AI in healthcare together.