To identify the abundant medical issues faced by Japanese provinces.
To nurture human resources capable of designing AI solutions for them.
Currently, there is a shortage of human resources capable of leading hands-on research and development of healthcare AI.
While we occasionally see medical professionals, such as doctors who enjoy programming or nurses who like data processing, utilizing AI in their own medical work, a systematic development program for such skills does not yet exist in Japan.
The universities join to this project are facing numerous healthcare challenges. The program aims to cultivate talent capable of solving these issues using the AI developed by the participating universities.
Individuals trained through this project are expected to make significant contributions in various situations, such as in-hospital treatment, home-based healthcare, business, public health where public interest is prioritized, and administration.
As part of this program, Tohoku University, Hokkaido University, and Okayama University will each administer a doctoral course and an intensive course.
The four-year doctoral course seeks to develop human resources capable of researching and developing sophisticated medical AI.
The one-year intensive course seeks to develop human resources capable of applying and using medical AI.
School of Medicine, Tohoku UniversityDoctoral course for developing medical AI human resources
- Eligibility
- Doctoral students in the medical sciences with medical practitioner’s licenses
- Course
targets - To develop human resources who are medical researchers, who are capable of specifying appropriate data and methods for AI research, and who are capable of deep discussions with engineers.
To develop human resources who, moreover, intend to deepen their understanding of AI, and who intend to specialize in medical AI.
School of Medicine, Tohoku UniversityIntensive course for developing medical AI human resources
- Eligibility
- Graduate students in the medical sciences, healthcare professionals, employees of life sciences/ICT companies, local government employees, etc.
- Course
targets - To develop human resources who are medical researchers, who are capable of specifying appropriate data and methods for AI research, and who are capable of deep discussions with engineers. To develop human resources who, moreover, intend to deepen their understanding of AI, and who intend to specialize in medical AI.
To develop human resources who are engineers, who are capable of understanding medical techniques, characteristics, and exit strategies and use this understanding to propose appropriate AI techniques to medical professionals.
Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido UniversityDoctoral program for nurturing medical AI developers
- Eligibility
- Doctoral students in the medical sciences
- Course
targets - In medical AI development teams, the leadership of medical professionals who possess knowledge of clinical medicine, data science, and laws and ethics is indispensable. This course focuses on the use of diagnostic imaging. It will nurture human resources who have a knowledge of the latest clinical medicine related to genomic medicine, diagnosis and treatment, drug development, nursing care for patients with dementia, and surgery; and who, based on this knowledge, will systematically acquire an understanding of AI techniques, laws, and ethics, and learn how to swiftly develop the types of AI required by society.
Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido UniversityIntensive program for nurturing medical AI developers
- Eligibility
- Current graduate students, former university graduates, and other persons with a similar level of healthcare knowledge
- Course
targets - When developing medical AI, it is vital that medical professionals work together with data scientists and programmers. This course seeks to nurture human resources capable of developing AI from various perspectives, who are capable of seeing the bigger picture of developing medical AI without being too narrowly focused on their own fields of specialty.
Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama UniversityDoctoral course
Medical data science innovator development subprogram
Course in applied medical AI
- Eligibility
- Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University
Doctoral course - Course
targets - To develop human resources who possess clinical healthcare knowledge; who possess the ability to investigate and accurately identify healthcare issues; and who are capable of designing appropriate AI research and development plans to resolve them.
Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama UniversityMedical AI Course (Intensive)
- Eligibility
- Current graduate students, former university graduates, and other persons with a similar level of healthcare knowledge
- Course
targets - To develop human resources who possess clinical healthcare knowledge; who possess the ability to investigate and accurately identify healthcare issues; and who are capable of designing appropriate AI research and development plans to resolve them.
Considerations for career development
The course invites lecturers from specialist institutions such as the RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project (AIP), the Artificial Intelligence Research Center (AIRC) at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), and the Japanese Association for Medical Artificial Intelligence, who are researching similar themes to course students; these lecturers host seminars that empower course students to think about their future careers. The course takes endeavors to invite lecturers who are not only working on similar research themes to course students, but who are also close in age to course students, and can therefore be seen as role models.
Target and actual student numbers
2022
| Doctoral course | Tohoku University | Hokkaido University | Okayama University | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actual number of students | 7 | 17 | 16 | |
| Target number of students | 5 | 4 | 3 | |
| Intensive course | Actual number of students | 223 | 100 | 210 |
| Target number of students | 7 | 6 | 6 |
2021
| Doctoral course | Tohoku University | Hokkaido University | Okayama University | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actual number of students | 9 | 8 | 7 | |
| Target number of students | 5 | 2 | 3 | |
| Intensive course | Actual number of students | 55 | 33 | 54 |
| Target number of students | 4 | 6 | 6 |
(As of April, 2023)