GLA Embarks on First-of-Its-Kind Dental AI Research
AI is everywhere, and in the dental industry, it‘s in the early stages of adoption for assessing x-rays and helping providers determine treatment needs for patients. But this brand-new technology leaves many wondering, can AI be trusted, especially in healthcare?
Dental investigators at VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System (VAGLAHS) are approaching that question through groundbreaking research intended to test the accuracy of judgments made by AI-assisted software programs.
The idea, said Dr. Owais Farooqi, Chief of Dental Service for VAGLAHS and lead for this pilot project, titled “VALID,” is to determine safety, effectiveness and trustworthiness. VALID is an acronym for Validating Artificially Learned Intelligence in Dentistry.
The AI-assisted software programs for dentistry have only recently been approved by the FDA, and this research is the first-of-its-kind in the VA Healthcare System.
Farooqi conceived this project after attending a Stanford University course on AI in healthcare. “The discovery of X-rays changed dentistry for the better, exceptionally so,” he said. “AI could make our expertise even better in detecting oral health problems. This can be an absolute game changer.”
AI can potentially improve accuracy, reduce bias, improve efficiency and prevent provider burnout for dentists, explained Farooqi. But it’s critical that its assessments are first independently and locally validated.
That premise is in keeping with President Joe Biden’s “Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence,” released on Oct. 23, 2023, which directs that federal agencies should “help ensure the safe, responsible deployment and use of AI in the healthcare, public-health, and human-services sectors.”
Dr. Yan Ming Gong, a first-year trainee in advanced prosthodontics at VAGLAHS, is one of the researchers working on the project. She and two other post-doctoral trainees, Dr. Gilbert Fru, advanced periodontics, and Dr. Landon Oswald, advanced prosthodontics, are collecting the data, sifting through it, and organizing it so it can be studied and analyzed.
“We manually go through everything and create the gold standard that the programs will then be tested against,” said Gong.
Healthcare is increasingly turning to AI for assistance, she added, but this kind of research is essential to ensure it’s doing what it was designed to do. “It can be a benefit to society – but not unless you can prove that it is,” said Gong.
By VAGLAHS embarking on this novel research, they’re helping to ensure the safety and effectiveness of AI software before it can be used to serve Veterans, said Farooqi.
“We are grateful to our VHA leadership and our collaborators in the AI industry who share our vision, and see this research having an impact that reverberates beyond VA and across the field of dentistry,” he added. “We’re honored to be at the forefront of validating this cutting-edge technology and helping to improve patient care.”