AAO 2024: Detail outlined for Artificial Intelligence Innovation Center at Wilmer Eye Institute

Author(s):

Key Takeaways

The AI Center at Wilmer Eye Institute is funded by a $10 million donation from Dr. James B. Gills and Mrs. Gills.
The center will emphasize inclusivity, collaboration with academic centers, industry, and foundations, and adaptability to AI advancements.
Key initiatives include providing AI talent, establishing a digital twin for data storage, and ensuring access to centralized compute resources.

During a conversation at the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting in Chicago, T.Y. Alvin Liu, MD, discussed plans for the James P. Gills Jr., MD, & Heather Gills Artificial Intelligence Innovation Center at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

T.Y. Alvin Liu, MD: Hello everyone. My name is Alvin Liu. I'm a retina specialist, and I'm on the faculty at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine. Today, I have the pleasure of introducing to you our new AI Center at Wilmer.

Recently, we received a very generous donation of $10 million from Dr James B Gills and Mrs. Gills to establish an endowed AI Center at Wilmer, and this will be the first endowed AI center at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. I have the honor of being asked to be the inaugural director of the center, together with the endowed professorship. This center will be guided by 3 important core values. Number 1, it will be open to all Wilmer faculty members. Number 2, we will seek to be proactively collaborative with other academic centers, industry and foundations. And Number 3, we will be ready to pivot rapidly in response to the evolving AI landscape.

In terms of specific initiatives, there are 3 major ones. First, we would like to provide a steady stream of computer science talents in terms of AI to our Wilmer faculty members. Number 2, we would like to establish a permanent data storage site to create a digital twin for all the images and videos at Wilmer. And Number 3, we will establish centralized and steady compute resources in terms of access to GPUs. We have many more initiatives to come, so stay tuned and thank you very much.