Humanity of and in the future

João Santinha graduated in Biomedical Engineering from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa during one of the longest economic crises Portugal has ever experienced and it was during this time that he heard about the Champalimaud Foundation (CF) for the first time. In a period when there were few opportunities in his field of study, a position opened up on the Scientific Software team that interested him. “I wasn’t selected,” he says smiling, but he adds proudly, “I was invited to another position a few years later.”

From graduation until 2017, the year he started working at CF, he dedicated himself to projects in various areas, and it was one of these that brought him back to Portugal. He developed a couple of medical image-analysis tools for radiologists that his friend, and now colleague, Nuno Loução, found useful for the work being developed by Nikos Papanikolaou's research group (Computational Clinical Imaging), and he joined the team.

Since then, João has been building his career in this institution, where, in addition to continuing his research work in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for medical imaging, he also completed his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Instituto Superior Técnico. Now he is Co-Principal Investigator of the Digital Surgery Lab at CF, an innovative unit that combines technology and medicine to improve surgical practice using AI and AR, enhancing precision and personalised treatments.

As we talk and reminisce about his early days, he happily says that this is a different kind of place, where closeness is felt in the corridors, because doctors, researchers and patients coexist. He describes the Foundation as a true network of talent, where you can always find someone with the knowledge that any new idea needs. “If you want to make an animation for an article, you have designers. If you need a 3D print, you discover that there is a hardware platform.”

Talking to doctors and understanding how their work can help clinical practice is what he enjoys most. Each successful project opens doors to new challenges, and he proudly says that his work is already being integrated into various units of the Foundation, helping to treat patients better and more effectively.

The universality of the tools his team develops is exciting for research, innovation and the future. They transform extra information, through AI algorithms, into new holistic diagnoses that would otherwise be impossible. It is this opportunity to explore what AI can reveal in seconds that motivates him to overcome all the challenges of the lengthy processes that require rigorous safeguards for patients.

AI has revolutionised medical imaging, opening up possibilities that were previously thought impossible. João wants AI to work alongside humans, so that errors can be reduced, consultations can be humanised and medicine can return to being closer to patients, with technology as an ally in clinical practice. This boom in open AI has also offered them the possibility to explore new paths in a short period of time and that is music to the ears of any researcher.

João tells us about one of the tools they are developing that uses AI to help other AI systems that surprised me, but also still surprises him. It allows for the pre-annotation of 3D medical images, putting technology at the service of doctors, saving not only resources but also time. The creation of this solution was only possible because there is direct contact with medical and research teams at CF, allowing for the discovery of real solutions with an impact on the patients served by the Foundation.

They call this tool "Artificial Intelligence Orchestrator" which, as the name suggests, is a tool that uses various AI algorithms to generate a single medical report with all possible results of the analysis of a medical image, so that they can be evaluated by the healthcare professional, the ultimate human conductor. With so many ideas still to be fulfilled, he adds that the perfect tool would be a version of this orchestrator that integrates this data, in a structured way, directly into the medical image through a single command – the voice – creating one unified orchestrator for all his innovations.

Looking to the future, João highlights the crucial role of technology in easing the overload on healthcare services, enabling the early detection of diseases and supporting patient education – all essential for society to continue growing in a healthy way. May these tools and technological developments, which are already part of the present, be able to bring humanity and the future closer together.
 

João Santinha, Principle Investigator and Co-Group Leader, Digital Surgery Lab, Champalimaud Foundation

Text by Diana Cadete, Digital & Events Manager of the Champalimaud Foundation's Communication, Events & Outreach Team

Full 20 Years, 20 Stories Collection here.