Irish Examiner view: Women’s health in the spotlight

Consultant Gynaecologist at Cork University Maternity Hospital Dr Aoife McSweeney at the recent conference. File picture

That old election slogan, “a lot done, more to do”, has been repurposed many times over the decades, and it came to mind again this week following a recent endometriosis conference in Dublin.

As reported here by Niamh Griffin, those in attendance heard that progress has been made in the treatment of endometriosis, but challenges still remain. One contributor, Sarah Bissett, recounted first experiencing symptoms of endometriosis at the age of 13, when a doctor told her that heavy periods were normal in her family.

“So I experienced pain for 13 years before I was diagnosed,” she added.

This is a recurring theme when it comes to women’s health, one not confined to the treatment of endometriosis. Downplaying symptoms and dismissing concerns are approaches with an unfortunately lengthy history in medicine, though the conference did hear of recent changes in this area. Contributors welcomed improvements in the interactions between GPs and hospitals, for instance.

In general, raising awareness of the condition has been a help, said Dr Aoife McSweeney, obstetrician, gynaecologist, and endometriosis surgeon at Cork University Maternity Hospital. She pointed out that “...in Cork in the last two years, we’ve done more surgery than we did in the 10 years beforehand,” adding that that “huge awareness” of endometriosis was reflected in the growth in services.

It is also encouraging that the experiences of other jurisdictions in dealing with endometriosis were shared at the conference. For instance, one contributor from the audience cautioned that a flood of state funding for private-sector care has raised concerns about inappropriate over-reliance on surgeries in Australia, where she had worked.

The general note of optimism which was struck at the conference is welcome, however. Hopefully, Ms Bissett’s observation — “I believe that we are getting there” — is one that will soon apply to all aspects of women’s health, and not just endometriosis.

AI both a positive and negative force

We continue to grapple with the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) and to tease out what it means for us all. Is it the latest sign of the apocalypse, as suggested by the doomsayers, or is it the key to a golden future, the preferred view of its supporters?

A couple of stories which emerged yesterday touch on these different perspectives. Take the findings of a study in the European Heart Journal, which detailed impressive results from a group of more than 120,000 women who had gone for breast screening but had no known heart disease.

AI was then used to analyse the resulting mammograms to identify calcium deposits in the arteries of breast tissue, which are known to harden arteries and can increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.

This is a good example of how its champions say AI will revolutionise our lives, by performing tasks which are now reliant on humans, and which are therefore subject to the accompanying risk of human error.

On the other hand, the experience of Cork councillor John Maher shows a more malign side of AI.

Mr Maher hit back yesterday at a disinformation campaign focused on him — digitally altered council documents have been circulated in some Cork-focused WhatsApp groups purporting to show Cork City Council’s plans to seek planning permission to develop a disused commercial premises as an International Protection Accommodation Service centre.

As Mr Maher told this newspaper, the campaign was “cowardly and despicable AI-generated false news that doesn’t help one person in our community or city”.

This is a relatively analog version of the kind of disinformation AI can be used for.

Only yesterday the BBC reported that Meta had taken down pages on Facebook which had ‘deepfakes’, AI-generated images of politicians.

Perhaps the best position to take on AI is the most obvious one — it is a tool like any other, and its user determines whether it is a positive or negative force.

Iconic voice fires imagination

There cannot be a family in Ireland which has not had to deal with dementia in some way, which makes a new initiative all the more welcome.

To supporting those living with dementia, earlier this week an archive of the late Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh’s iconic GAA commentaries was launched in Croke Park.

It is intended to be used to spark memory and connection through reminiscence therapy.

Called ‘The Replay’, it is an online audio service that brings together a full catalogue of GAA history in the form of Ó Muircheartaigh’s audio match commentaries from All-Ireland football and hurling finals between 1985 and 2010.

The service is specifically designed to fire the imagination and trigger memories among the wider population, and to support positive ageing and brain health more generally. Matches are searchable by game, year, or county on the service.

One of the most distinctive voices in the history of Irish broadcasting, Ó Muircheartaigh’s passionate commentaries soundtracked the summer for generations of people. There could hardly be a more appropriate — or more evocative —voice picked for this initiative, which covers a full quarter-century of games and should therefore have something to
appeal to every county.

The Replay is a collaboration between the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, the GAA, and RTÉ Archives, and it has the full support of the Ó Muircheartaigh family.

All are to be commended for an imaginative project which will surely help many listeners by recalling the great summer Sundays of years gone by.

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