Cancer screening: would AI do better than doctors?

In China, an artificial intelligence beat doctors in a brain tumor diagnostic contest from X-rays and MRIs. The purpose of the operation: to convince skeptics, especially in the medical profession.

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If robots are gradually entering our operating theaters and in precision medicine, they have not yet invaded the diagnostic part of medicine. But this situation could change, as the improvement of artificial intelligences is going well.

Evidence of this is the results of a competition recently organized by the center for research on neurological disorders at Tiantan Hospital in Beijing, China . The latter developed an artificial intelligence, or AI, named BioMind, that was put to the test in a competition against 15 experienced doctors. Two tests were performed, based on MRI and CT images: the first was diagnosing a brain tumor, and the second predicting the expansion of a hematoma. Verdict: 2-0 for AI It has indeed won both tests, with correct diagnoses established in 87% of 225 cases in 15 minutes, where doctors have reached only 66% accuracy. As for the prediction of the expansion of a cerebral hematoma, AI gave correct answers in 83% of the cases, compared to 63% for the group of doctors.

That said, the hospital reports that [19659007] the doctors, however, obtained results quite correct, and even better than the average precision measured in the Chinese hospitals.

For forming the artificial intelligence at the cancer screening the developers integrated it tens of thousands of images from the Tiantan Hospital Archives over the last ten years. But none of the cases presented in this competition had been used as training material for the AI, so she did not know the answer yet.

The management of the Chinese hospital states that the goal was not to know who AI and doctors would win, but rather to show the most skeptical doctors the diagnostic capabilities of artificial intelligence BioMind. The team that created the AI ​​hoped that the medical community would see it more as a "friend", a help, than a threat. If it does not have a vocation to replace physicians, it could serve as their badistant when it is necessary to provide preliminary results. A bit like the way GPS guides car drivers suggested one of the jury members of the contest

Source: Xinhuanet