Qatar University’s College of Medicine showcased innovative AI applications in athlete health at the 7th IOC World Conference in Monaco, emphasising the integration of technology in preventing sports-related injuries and illnesses.
Qatar University’s (QU) College of Medicine announced on Wednesday that it had participated in the 7th International Olympic Committee (IOC) World Conference on Prevention of Injury and Illness in Sport.
Scheduled ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics, the event was held from February 29 to March 2 in Monaco with nearly 5,000 attendees and facilitated discussions with the global sports and exercise medicine communities.
Several guests attended the conference, including Prince Albert II of Monaco and Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad al-Thani, the president of the Qatar Olympic Committee.
Representing Qatar was Yosra Magdi Mekki, a fifth-year medical student at QU, who presented a unique and innovative 90-minute seminar on ‘Friend or foe? The role of Artificial Intelligence in the quest to protect athletes’ health and prevent injury and illness.
Mekki’s presentation combined her medical training from QU with expertise in developing machine learning and extended reality solutions for healthcare, offering a fresh perspective on athlete’s health.
Mekki’s was one of the 40 proposals accepted by the IOC out of 400.
The fifth-year student spoke about wearing two hats as a researcher who combines her medical training from QU with expertise in developing machine learning and extended reality solutions for healthcare.
Dr Khalid Bashir, head of the Clinical Academic Sciences Department at the College of Medicine, voiced that Mekki also enlightened faculty members on the application of AI in medical education.
“As a direct result, I have integrated AI into our teaching methodologies for the year six clerkship and intend to employ it in the final OSCE assessment,” Bashir said.
Dr Paul Dijkstra, head of Medical Education at Aspetar spoke about the participation of Qatar in the conference saying: “We feel honoured to have been part of the diverse invited faculty from all over the world, representing the pre-eminent international authorities in injury and illness prevention.”
“We are especially thrilled to, for the first time ever, present a symposium on ‘The role of AI to protect athletes’ health and prevent injury and illness..based on the feedback, this symposium laid the foundation for AI in the field and spotlighted important areas, including ethics, open source, leadership, and authentic collaboration, which will open the doors for the medicine and medical community to focus on and develop,” Dijkstra added.
