CAPHRI researcher awarded prestigious Vidi grant to enhance AI reliability in healthcare
Maastricht University's Care and Public Health Research Institute (CAPHRI) is proud to announce that Dr Laure Wynants has been awarded a prestigious Vidi grant worth €850,000 from the Dutch Research Council (NWO). This significant funding will support Dr Wynants' innovative research on artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare over the next five years.
Dr Wynants' project, titled "AI in Healthcare: How Confident Are We?", aims to develop advanced value-of-information measures to assess the reliability of AI models in medical applications. This research addresses critical gaps in current AI testing methodologies, which often rely on small-scale studies and fail to account for varied suitability across different healthcare settings and populations.
"In my research so far, I have mainly been developing new prediction models for diagnostic and prognostic applications, and assessing existing models," Dr Wynants explains. "I have found that it remains very unclear when evidence on a model is convincing enough to support clinical decisions in practice with current assessment criteria. With the Vidi grant, I can establish a team that will develop better measures to assess: is a model ready for use, or is more research needed?"
The project's primary objective is to create robust tools that can measure the reliability of AI models in healthcare. These value-of-information measures will reflect the risks of uncertainty, expressed as the expected number of misdiagnoses. This approach will allow healthcare professionals and policymakers to make more informed decisions about implementing AI in clinical settings.
Dr Wynants emphasises the potential impact of this research: "With this, I ultimately want to contribute to the optimal integration of AI in healthcare." By improving the assessment of AI models, the project aims to enhance patient care through more reliable diagnostic and prognostic tools.
The Vidi grant, part of the NWO's Talent Programme, is awarded to experienced researchers who have demonstrated the ability to generate and implement innovative ideas independently. This recognition underscores the significance of Dr Wynants' work in the rapidly evolving field of AI in healthcare.
CAPHRI and Maastricht University congratulate Dr Wynants on this achievement and look forward to the valuable insights her research will bring to the field of AI in medicine over the coming years.
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