Health challenges represent one of the long-standing issues in the Arab region that hinder its ability to develop. Prevalence of diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, liver cirrhosis and cancer among many others has contributed to the deteriorated health status across the region leading to lower life expectancy compared to other regions. For instance, the average life expectancy in the Arab world is approximately 70 years, which is at least 10 years lower than most high-income countries.2 Among many directions of healthcare development across the region, biomedical computing research represents one main arm of tackling health challenges. Advances in computational technologies have enabled the emergence of biomedical computing as one of the most influential research areas worldwide.

With improvements, especially those that raise ethical concerns like a greater inaccuracy with darker skin tones, such programs may help in diagnosing and managing Parkinson's, the researchers wrote. Their study, "Detecting facial characteristics of Parkinson's disease by novel artificial intelligence (AI) softwares," was published in the journal Brain Supplement. Parkinson's-associated motor symptoms, such as tremors and muscular rigidity, affect a person's ability to show emotions via facial expressions, with implications for a patient's sense of self-esteem and engagement in social life. Artificial intelligence (AI) may be more able than other methods to track and quantify these changes with disease progression. AI-based facial recognition technology analyzes facial characteristics, such as age, emotions, and skin texture, and could prove useful in assessing Parkinson's-related changes.

Researchers have used advanced AI and large sets of genomic data to unveil how humans have adapted to recent diseases. The method could also be applied to new pathogens such as the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, helping identify which gene mutations may be associated with more severe cases of the disease. The study, by researchers from Imperial College London, the Middle East Technical University, Turkey, and the Universita degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Italy, is published today in a Special Issue of Molecular Ecology Resources, "Machine Learning techniques in Evolution and Ecology." Natural selection is the process by which beneficial gene mutations are preserved from generation to generation, until they become dominant in our genomes--the catalog of all our genes. One thing that can drive natural selection is protection against pathogens.