APRIL 9 - APRIL 10, 2022


Medical Humanities in the Middle East Online

Mowafa Said Househ

ABSTRACT

 

ESRA – towards explicability

Shahana Mohammed Nuhu

College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University

Jens Schneider

College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University

Mowafa Househ

College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University

 

An attempt to interlace art, therapy, and technology; an area which is not much explored and researched on. It is surprising that we only find very little literature on this context, which undoubtedly has a lot of possibilities in research.  

In today’s world of growing pandemonium and lack of time to perceive feelings, the significance of understanding the psyche of our people has become compelling. Especially, in this pandemic situation and with children, the mental trauma they may be dealing with may not be expressed obviously. This is where the significance of artwork and art therapy comes into the picture. By giving a ‘technology touch’ to the concept of art therapy, it can be promoted effectively and extensively among people.   

Children, like adults, have a full spectrum of feelings. The world around them affects them emotionally – be it triggered by situational difficulty, impacted by family problems, traumatic events, over-stimulating content in media, dysfunction in the community, etc. But they might find it difficult to express their feelings verbally, maybe due to fear, or maybe due to an inability to express it. In such a situation, direct communication becomes difficult and artwork wins.  

ESRA (Emotion Sensing Recognition) automatically assesses a photograph of a child-drawn picture to bridge the gap between a child, his caregiver, and the therapist. The caregiver can use the app to identify if there is the reason for concern in an understandable way: Our method produces results in descriptive, plain English that is easily understood by anyone. If parents see a red flag, they can initiate dialogue with the child as well as an art therapist. From the result, the Art Therapist also gets an idea of potential issues, and she/he can begin her/his analysis and therapy with additional knowledge. The key idea behind all this is explainable AI. The tool developed in this context is just that: a tool, not a diagnostic panacea, to help human life. Findings made by the machine are explained in layman’s terms – what are the observations? What does it imply? Why it is a problem? What is to be done? etc. instead of being an inexplicable black box displaying overwhelming amounts of the numeric results. Instead, the machine literally explains its finding with the end-user in mind, such that the end-user himself can make informed decisions whether to accept the results or not. It is, in fact, giving the power of decision back to the user, which is a major ethical concern in modern AI-based systems (autonomy).

 

BIO

Dr. Mowafa Said Househ (موفق سعيد حوسة), PhD, is a researcher, innovator, social entrepreneur, teacher, and author of health informatics in the Arab World affiliated with Hamad Bin Khalifa University, College of Science and Engineering, Qatar Foundation, Qatar. His primary research interests are around the use of information and communication technologies to empower patients and clinicians, specifically focusing on Social Media and Mobile Technologies in Healthcare in the promotion of public health practice and healthcare literacy. Dr. Househ is also an adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Victoria School of Health Information Science, Victoria, BC, Canada. Dr. Househ has received several awards locally and internationally within the field of health informatics recognizing his research and entrepreneurship efforts which include: Researcher Award, King Abdullah International Medical Research Centre, 2015; MBC Hope Awards for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship in 2015; Finalist for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Arab Enterprise Forum competition, 2014; Young Researcher Award, King Abdullah International Medical Research Centre, 2010; Northern British Columbia Healthcare in Technology Award, Canada, 2007; The Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Trainee Award, Canada, 2003. Dr. Househ has published over 130 research articles and over 6 books in the field of health informatics.