Current issues regarding artificial intelligence in cancer and health care. Implications for medical physicists and biomedical engineers

The development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare has been a long road with many significant obstacles that at the same time present opportunities for biomedical engineers and medical physicists to assume leadership roles in the implementation of AI in healthcare. International organizations like IOMP, IFMBE and IUPESM must take initiative in addressing the current challenges in AI, particularly in data science including: (1) Big data collection and registries; (2) Data Privacy; (3) Data Input and Standardization of Reporting; (4) What knowledge/data should be recorded and used; (5) Algorithms; (6) Implementation, validation, and quality assurance; (7) Rapidly growing volumes of data; (8) Ethical considerations and many others. This article presents an overview of the current status of AI in cancer and health care and highlights the opportunities it presents for new professional roles of biomedical engineers and medical physicists.