Experts Testing AI Tool that Predicts Patients' Health
April 22, 2024
Science & Technology
Vocabulary
Repeat each word, definition, and example sentence after your tutor.
medication
Noun
ˌmɛdəˈkeɪʃən
a drug or other form of medicine taken to treat or prevent an illness
Since my operation, I have to take this medication every day.
simulation
Noun
ˌsɪmjəˈleɪʃən
an artificial recreation of something that does or could happen in reality
The training center uses the most advanced flight simulation software available.
disorder
Noun
dɪsˈɔːrdər
an illness or condition that prevents normal mental or physical functions
It's common for former soldiers to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.
relapse
Noun
ˈriːlæps
an instance of someone's health returning to a worse condition after a temporary improvement
The doctor emphasized the importance of continuing the treatment to minimize the risk of a relapse.
perspective
Noun
pərˈspɛktɪv
a particular way of thinking about or attitude towards something
The documentary offers a unique perspective on the life and career of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain.
diagnose
Verb
ˌdaɪəgˈnoʊs
to identify an illness or the cause of a problem
Actor Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991.
Article
Experts Testing AI Tool That Predicts Patients' Health
A new artificial intelligence tool could be used to predict our future health conditions, according to researchers in London.
Experts from a number of different universities and hospitals have been trying out a tool they developed called Foresight.
It has been trained on the health care data of real patients, and it uses deep learning to recognize patterns in the data and identify future symptoms, medications, conditions and procedures.
In other words, it's a simulation of what someone's future health will look like.
The results of tests on Foresight have now been published in The Lancet Digital Health.
Three different models of Foresight were trained on sets of health data from more than 800,000 patients in the UK and the US.
In order to check how accurate the tool was, the researchers compared its predictions with what really happened to a smaller number of patients whose medical records they studied.
In the datasets taken from the UK, Foresight correctly identified a person's next disorder 68% of the time in one data set, and 76% of the time in the other.
In the US data, its predictions were correct 88% of the time.
When Foresight was asked to predict a person's next "biomedical concept," which included a condition, a medication, a symptom or a relapse, it was accurate at least 80% of the time on all datasets.
Experts also examined the predictions to check that they made sense from a medical perspective.
But this isn't a tool for predicting the future, said Zeljko Kraljevic ("KRAL-ye-vitch"), the study's first author, and it isn't designed to help patients diagnose themselves.
He said it could be used to "make sure a diagnosis is not missed or for continual patient monitoring," as well as to help doctors to make decisions about a patient.
"The more data it receives the better it gets," he added.
The researchers said more testing is needed, and they're looking for hospitals to help trial a more accurate version, to be called Foresight 2.
Discussion
1.
What are your thoughts on the AI tool that predicts patients' health?
2.
Are you surprised by how accurate Foresight has been in its predictions so far?
3.
Would you trust a diagnosis made by an AI?
4.
What impact do you imagine AI will have on the future of healthcare?
5.
Do you think AI could replace doctors one day?