Why can’t Armenia create its own artificial lung ventilation device? President Sarkissian expects proposals-solutions from the future engineers and doctors and promises to invest in a workable solution

President Armen Sarkissian gave today another lecture applying the distant learning mode, via video-conference to a group of students of the M. Heratsi Yerevan State Medical University and National Polytechnic University of Armenia.

Before starting the class, President Sarkissian spoke about classes held for a group of students of the YSU Departments of Oriental Studies, Physics, Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Mathematics and Mechanics. In particular, referring to the class with the students of the Oriental Studies Department and their homework, Armen Sarkissian said that they have approached the assignment with creativity, thought, discussed, and put on electronic “paper” their ideas related to the Middle East and Persian Gulf. “There are already multiple papers,” the President said, “And it is gratifying to read them because they reveal a good command of history, region, international relations, fundamentals and tools of political science.”

The President encouraged the students of Oriental Studies to carry on with the assignment, “If you have more time, even if you have already submitted one paper, think of another one, let’s say, “Coronavirus and the Middle East.”

Speaking about the class with future mathematicians and physics, President noted that young student-scientists have understood correctly the task before them. “The papers I’ve got show that they think in different ways, have interesting, unconventional solutions,” President Sarkissian said. “That’s exactly what I’ve been expecting, not to repeat decades- old solutions, classic examples from the textbooks, but to apply a creative approach. It is gratifying that there were group papers too, a number of people worked on them together.”

Turning to today’s lecture, President said that through the centuries, healthcare and knowledge about it were linked to registering and storing positive and negative results alike. “For centuries, one thousand, two thousand years ago, doctors were there already and throughout their lives were trying to cure or bring health back to ailing people, to acquire solid knowledge,” the President of Armenia said. “There were many talented doctors in history, in the Middle East, in Central Asia, in China, in Armenia. Medicine has always relied on knowledge and information. Naturally, along with the technological development, at every stage, after first, second, third industrial revolutions medicine changed, became more systemized and modern. Glancing back, we see that technologies have been always inspired by healthcare because a great number of new technologies and tools, devices and medical success are related to the problems set by medicine before technologies. Healthcare identified the problem, while technologies, engineers, based on scientific research, provided solutions.”

The President said that it is impossible to imagine healthcare without technologies. “If we go back 30, 40, 50 years, we’ll see only one or two heart transplantation surgeries, then came the open heart surgery which now have become a common practice all over the world. It became possible not only because doctors passed on their experience from one to another but also because there is an enormous number of new tools, technologies, medications, biological achievements. We have learned to work with the immunity system, learned to control certain human factors through drugs, from blood pressure to respiratory organs. But, at the same time, it is equally important that tools to assist surgeons and physicians were also created. From thousands of classic examples, let’s take the well-known the magnetic resonance imaging device which is pretty good at showing our internal picture. The computer stores all that information, and after processing it, provides images which doctors scrutinize. The only problem today is that those images are plenty, can be in hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, millions. New factors emerge nowadays which originate from technologies and will influence the whole realm of healthcare and technologies. There is a number of factors, the most important among them is called the fourth industrial revolution, and artificial intelligence is one of its elements. Artificial intelligence in the use of the devices based on the same magnetic resonance will perform a simple task. Since human eye or time will not allow to go through thousands images or plates, artificial intelligence can process hundreds of thousands images and provide a picture. It means that the doctor will not have someone beside him to compete with but one who will help to form a correct final opinion, to diagnose.”

President Sarkissian noted that today the leading technological companies, major famous firms manufacture predominantly medical equipment. “If you follow their financial flows, you will see that medical equipment is much more profitable,” the President said. “For all technological firms healthcare and medicine, with regard to expansion, is a very significant area. Healthcare is advancing incessantly, the human race faces enormous problems, and they pop up every day, which means that for engineers there is always work to do, always a new source of income. By the same token, each new technological breakthrough helps doctors make a better decision, to save human lives. There are hundreds of examples, in the area of cancer treatment, lungs, kidney, all organs, even those related to longevity. Let’s speak about cardiovascular disease which is, unfortunately, very common in Armenia. Thirty years back, surgery on the open heart was not performed in Armenia, not very often such surgeries were performed in Moscow. Today, a number of centers in Armenia perform that surgery, high-quality, same standards as in Europe and United States apply. Only 30 years ago, people with that disease took prescription medicine and were just trying to hold on because there was no solution.

Today, a surgeon, who has to perform a complicated surgery, is planning the surgery together with cardiologists. Imagine, with new technologies, information obtained from roentgen, ultrasound, magnetic resonance is processed by artificial intelligence. The surgeon will be able to make an experimental surgery first, meaning – in a virtual mode. With the precise measurement of the patient’s heart, he will be able to make a virtual surgery first, then the real one.

It will be a great change because experimental act is very important in any area of our activity. All fields will be changing in step with the technological development, and medicine more than others.”

Addressing the students, President said, “You, doctors and engineers, in the future will be working together. I believe one day, probably, very soon our engineering and science universities will have medical departments and vice versa, medical universities will have departments of medical engineering. We can be successful here, because in many renowned centers this area is supervised by our compatriots. There are dozens of examples but I will give you just two. The first is the Imperial College in London which one of Great Britain’s top three universities. It is a science and engineering university which also has a huge medical center, a hospital, a center which works on medical engineering. All that compound is headed by an Armenian, Ara Darzi. He invented laparoscopy and was the Minister of Health of the United Kingdom. There is also a large number of startups in that college. They encourage young people to provide new ideas for the resolution of problems.

Another example: a medical center has been created at the Moscow State University headed by the academician Aramays Kamalov. I believe that one of our objectives should be the development of that area in Armenia. We have a Presidential initiative called АТОМ (Advanced Tomorrow) which strives to advance the area of artificial intelligence through the establishment of joint ventures with the leading companies of the world. For instance, our discussions with Siemens pertain to two areas: medicine and energy.

I will be greatly gratified if young people get engaged and create startups. Thus, one of this lecture’s purposes is to encourage you; engineers should know that will be manufacturing not only space shuttles and vehicles, while doctors should not feel isolated. Both occupations will merge more and more and will employ new technological means.”

Keeping up with the tradition, President assigned a task to the students. “Problems will be of three types, and you have one month. Doctors should think and present in the form of an article the biggest challenges we face; second, tell us how you see the development of medical area in Armenia.

These are general topics, but there is also the third one which is very important. Let’s define the problem the following way: protect and defend doctors. In the situation created by the coronavirus, the greatest issue is to protect doctors. This virus cannot be defeated without doctors but if doctors get infected and sick, we will have a huge problem. And it is a problem not only for Armenia. There are multiple examples, the worst is Italy, where, unfortunately, doctors were not protected in time. They contracted virus and when people started to enter hospitals, they became the source of spread of the coronavirus. How to avoid it? To get to a hospital, a person should go through a certain process, to make sure that he or she is not infected. If a person has a chronic illness, hospitals need to have separate clinics so that doctors, who are isolated, can find out whether the person brought by an ambulance is sick or not. And only after that let them enter the clinic. Or, all doctors in the clinic should be separated, doctors need to keep social distance. But this is a simple model.

I want you to present your ideas on “Protect doctors” topic, while the engineers need to think how technologies can help in the fight against the epidemic. For instance, many of you have electronic watches, cellphones which have multiple functions. Imagine that the phone also has an electronic thermometer and there will be no need to have your temperature taken when you enter a public venue because it will be done by the phone.

And one common issue which is not only for you but also for your tutors, companies which have laboratories and work with your educational establishments. One of the major problems in the fight against the coronavirus is the artificial lung ventilation device. They are essentially needed in large quantities. Even some of big European states experience shortages of these devices, and many of the well-known companies have started their production. Why can’t Armenia have its own artificial lung device whose main parts are a pump, which can be created on a 3D printer, and electronic regulator. It’s a tough but not too tough for creating a sample – a plastic pump and electronic system. This cannot be done by engineers only, or by doctors only. This should be a joint project.

If you take it up and are successful, those who win with first two assignments will receive Presidential awards, while if there are solutions for the third task, I am ready to invest to start the manufacturing of the devices.

Proposals on this task should be sent to homework3@president.am electronic mail.”

Responding to the question from the audience on whether artificial intelligence, along with improving people’s lives, could be harmful for the humankind and create even bigger problems, President Sarkissian said in particular, “Any idea, an invention ultimately has two sides – to serve the humankind in both positive and negative ways. The problem is not with artificial intelligence but with natural intelligence, e.g. our logic and our moral values. If we use our invention to destroy something, eventually that tool can destroy us. Artificial intelligence is only a tool, just like a spade, fire, means to get heating, computers. There are computers which today regulate a major part of our lives but along with them came viruses and a situation has been created when along with passing the information, false information appears too. The same computer is capable through a certain system to destroy a nuclear power station. Any tool is not dangerous by itself, we are those who present danger. Thus, leave artificial intelligence alone. It cannot harm us if we uphold morals, have human principles, values and use our natural intelligence for the benefit of the human race. Otherwise, artificial intelligence or an axe – harm can be enormous.”