Mommy's Favorite Things: Are You Ready for an AI Eye Doctor?



Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Are You Ready for an AI Eye Doctor?



Over the past decade, artificial intelligence has been given more instructions and programming regarding the anatomy of the human body. As AIs become familiar with more conditions and various diseases the machines are also learning to identify abnormalities, possible defects, and detect probable subtle changes in an individual’s condition. Yes, that means the AIs are learning to doctor humans. One of the newest and most surprising ways this is happening is with common eye diseases from a simple 3D scan.

How Does It Work?

The program uses established and recognized patterns in the past studies of eyes to allow the algorithms the task of identifying abnormalities, irregularities, or deviations from what is considered normal. Once a problem is identified, a medical practitioner such as eye specialist and ophthalmologist Kang Zhang receives the information and is able to delve into the situation with each individual patient. The scan takes about 10 minutes, and once the information is fed into the AI program, the data takes seconds to return any associated problems.

Who Says What?

When a panel studied the analysis of doctors compared to the recommendations of the AI program, the results were the same more than 90 percent of the time. With results that high, there as been a push by proponents to integrate the AI structures into the healthcare system with very few bind tests. Opponents, or those that are more wary of AI medical intervention, call for more testing of the system and question what happens when AI detect without human oversite? Who will be responsible for medical malpractice claims, errors, or fatal decisions?
We may understand what we program into the database of an AI, but the problem is humans don’t understand how AIs make the decisions they make. The final questions each person needs to ask for themselves is – Are you ready for an AI doctor?

0 comments: