Assoc. Prof. Dr. Salih Beyaz, a faculty member of the Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology at Başkent University Adana Dr. Turgut Noyan Practice and Research Center, stated that in 2016 they developed a universal laser marker technology for C-Arm Fluoroscopy devices. He said, “Our device, for which we wrote the article and applied for a patent, was awarded the ‘Invention of the Year’ prize at the 2019 Teknofest fair.”
Touching on the fact that artificial intelligence studies are still very new in Turkey, Assoc. Prof. Beyaz added, “In collaboration with our clinic and the Computer Engineering Department of Başkent University, we developed the first artificial intelligence project in the field of orthopedics in our country. We announced our project to the world with an article published in an international journal. Since 2020, Başkent University has been collaborating with Turkcell Technology, which has the largest R&D center among Information and Communication Technologies organizations in Turkey. These collaborations bring together industrial and academic perspectives for significant joint projects. For about three years, we have been conducting two major studies on identifying hip fractures and staging osteoarthritis in the knee through X-ray images. Currently, both studies are being actively applied in hospitals affiliated with Başkent University.”
Commenting on the rapid growth of the private insurance sector and the increasing use of artificial intelligence applications, particularly in the authorization stage of medical services, Beyaz stated, “Considering that it is no longer possible for human effort alone to process and interpret the ever-growing amount of data in healthcare, the integration of this technology into our lives has become a necessity.”
Highlighting future projects, Beyaz noted that they are designing a decision-support and control mechanism to assist physicians in making surgical decisions. “With this method, we aim to significantly contribute to patient safety by reducing errors caused by the workload in clinics. In this project, we are conducting a pilot study comparing the results of our artificial intelligence system, which diagnoses hip fractures by scanning patient images, with doctor reports. We are also in the testing phase of another algorithm that works with patients over 50 years old who visit the orthopedics clinic complaining of knee pain. This system scans X-ray images of patients with knee pain to detect osteoarthritis and its stages,” he concluded.