AI Healthcare: Machine diagnosis expected to be powerful aid to doctors

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03:08

Artificial intelligence can be a powerful tool when it comes to improving our health. At the international conference in Shanghai, CGTN reporter Yang Chengxi takes a look at how machines are now able to diagnose illnesses and provide support to doctors.

The World AI Conference in Shanghai is showcasing how technology can improve human welfare in all walks of life.

YANG CHENGXI SHANGHAI "Today AI is being put to use in one of the most important tasks in protecting humanity, and that is detecting illnesses."

It's this area of expertise that most exhibitors are placing their focus on, with some saying AI has a promising future in the field of medicine.

HE CHUAN CEO, PROXAI TECHNOLOGY "With machines assisting with diagnoses, community doctors in China's less-developed regions can carry out their work in a more competent way while having greater diagnostic accuracy."

AI diagnosis is enabled by a process called deep learning, involving the input of thousands of X-ray or MRI results, and letting the computer learn and examine the patterns.

PROFESSOR QIAO YOULIN CHINESE ACADEMY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES "AI can recognize potential cancer patterns and give second opinions to doctors. It doesn't tell you whether the patient is sick, but rather shows the statistical probability of it after analysis."

At an event held by Chinese tech company Tencent earlier this month, the firm showed off their version of AI healthcare, which would include the ability of detecting lung cancer at an early stage. The system is currently being put to use in more than 100 hospitals across China.

JIA JIAYA, GENERAL MANAGER TENCENT YOUTU LAB "We can detect some lung nodules which are very small, just three millimeters, this is very very small. So even for the experts, doctors, it's still difficult to find and is easily missed."

AI diagnosis could be powerful as long as it has enough data input into the database. That means the system needs to work closely with experienced doctors.

PROFESSOR QIAO YOULIN CHINESE ACADEMY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES "AI is like a student. You need to teach it how to solve problems by showing it the correct keys. This makes the doctor's role very important. Because if we feed AI with incorrect keys, it will give wrong answers to problems."

Some companies claim that AI diagnosis now has a higher accuracy than most doctors. Also, when senior diagnosticians retire, their years of experience will retire with them.

JIA JIAYA, GENERAL MANAGER TENCENT YOUTU LAB "For computer AI, there is no such refresh or rebooting. Basically as long as enough data, the data will be there forever, always. In addition, every year we have more data and the data will be added to the original one and improve accuracy."

While most experts don't believe AI can replace doctors any time soon, the self-perfecting technology is expected to become a powerful aid. YCX CGTN SHANGHAI.