Health
A Professor of Computer Science, Benjamin Aribisala, has called on management of tertiary institutions in Nigeria to improve their capacity building in medical image analysis and computer vision.
Aribisala, also Dean, Faculty of Science, Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, made the call on Tuesday, while delivering the 75th Inaugural Lecture of the university.
He said that computer scientists in medical research and computer vision were very few, noting “only LASU has an expert in medical image analysis”.
Aribisala said: “We need more people in the field of medical image analysis, that is why we are currently training some students on the course.
“These are people who will develop software packages to be used by medical experts and also help in data visualisation and analysis,” Aribisala said.
He said that multi-disciplinary research should be promoted, because “they are all made to complement each other and that togetherness was required in research settings”.
According to him, medical research is capital intensive, because it is all about lives.
“We are blessed as a nation, because we have many scientists and medical scholars; but how can they conduct research without the right equipment?
“Medical image analysts need imaging equipment to be able to see the internal organs.
“One of the most important imaging equipment in medical domain is MRI.
“We need MRI machine in LASU and in all universities in Nigeria; with the machine, we do not need to send patients abroad for diagnosis,” Aribisala said.
The computer scientist also urged Federal Government to invest in the internet infrastructure and do all possible to ensure that Nigerian citizens have access to the internet at an affordable cost.
“Government can make the communication companies to provide infrastructure freely to all universities in Nigeria as commonly done in many parts of the world.
“The technological advancement in the computing world is a very interesting issue because of its association with the economy, quality of life and education, among others.
“People need to engage their brain in things that can task the brain.
“For those in academics, no problem, but nonacademic needs simple arithmetic, logic, and word search to make their brain healthy,” Aribisala said. (NAN)
– Dec. 11, 2019 @ 8:59 GMT
Tags: computer vision – Expert Improve capacity building in medical image analysis
