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X Prize Foundation Wants AI Physician On Every Smartphone

Posted by Soulskill on from the universal-health-care dept.

kkleiner writes "One of the exciting ideas being tossed around recently at the X Prize Foundation is the creation of an Artificial Intelligence physician that you could access from your smartphone. Want to know if that rash on your leg is poison ivy or smallpox? Take a photo of it with your phone and ask the AI. The possibilities are enormous, especially for the billion plus people around the world who live more than a few hours' walk or drive from the nearest doctor." This is one of four X Prizes in planning for the future. The other three are for an AI automobile driver, organ generation through stem cell use, and a deep sea submersible capable of exploring the sea floor.

19 of 245 comments (clear)

  1. No smallpox. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Want to know if that rash on your leg is poison ivy or smallpox?

    Not smallpox. C4n I plz haz the prize?

  2. Internet hypochondria is already a phenomenon by Burz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/internet-makes-hypochondria-worse

    Would the smartphone version be any better?

    1. Re:Internet hypochondria is already a phenomenon by kg8484 · · Score: 5, Funny

      No, but now I'm worried I might have Hypochondria.

    2. Re:Internet hypochondria is already a phenomenon by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Don't worry, the AMA would never allow it (not in the U.S. anyway). Their main function is to protect the livelihood of their members (aka physicians). Anything that threatens their monopoly is immediately labeled a health hazard and banned in the U.S.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    3. Re:Internet hypochondria is already a phenomenon by Kilrah_il · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's even more problematic than you think. As a doctor, many times I have patients coming to me with "agonizing abdominal pain" - they are sure it's appendicitis. If you check their stomach or ask them "does it hurt here?" they jump and cry and wail, etc. etc. But if I start talking to them on other subjects (What do you do in your life? Are you married? Children?) and get them diverted, I find out many times that they "forget" about their pain and the stomach is as soft and non-tender as can be.
      This is one of the reasons that no app can replace a physical exam by a doctor. You need the doctor-patient relationship to strip away the anxiety and find out the true magnitude of the symptoms. So, yes, an app like the one in TFA could be nice as a handy reference, but nothing beats the good-old face-to-face meeting.

      --
      Whenever in an argument, remember this.
    4. Re:Internet hypochondria is already a phenomenon by bitflip · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I was having some pain in my chest a couple of years back, and did some research on the internet, but none of the symptoms fit. So, I went to my doctor, and told him I'd done some research, but it didn't seem like a heart problem. When he looked surprised, I asked him if I was the only person who'd said they'd looked stuff up on the internet, and decided nothing was wrong. He said, pretty much, yea.

      (turned out to be a minor stomach problem, all fixed now - thanks doc!)

    5. Re:Internet hypochondria is already a phenomenon by jeffporcaro · · Score: 5, Informative

      OMG, I *wish* this were true of the AMA. As a physician and still active member, I can tell you that this couldn't be further from the truth. The AMA's primary business is publishing and maintaining insurance coding and billing standards, and selling their databases to the highest bidder. They employ lobbyists primarily to maintain that monopoly - they are NOT particularly interested in maintaining insurance or government payments to physicians (aka "livelihood"), although they make noises on that topic occasionally. They've basically been relegated to the sidelines on most national issues involving medicine. They represent less than 30% of active US physicians. I hear this same trope frequently, however, despite the fact that it's demonstrably false.

      --
      It is not the doing of things that is difficult. What is difficult is getting in the right mood to do them. ~~ Brancusi
  3. Hmmm by Spad · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Because having medical advice available on the internet hasn't led to people flooding GP surgeries because they're convinced their cough is actually Ebola.

  4. My epitaph... by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Here Lies Jim
    His cellphone said it wasn't cancer.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  5. Tell me more by bsDaemon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tell me more about X Prize foundation Wants AI Physician On Every Smartphone. /emacs

  6. Nice idea, but... by miaDWZ · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The thing is going to get killed a week after public release after the AI 'misdiagnosis' someone and they decide to sue.

  7. Yeah... by SolitaryMan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Especially for the billion plus people around the world who live more than a few hours walk or drive from the nearest doctor.

    Yeah, to all four of them, who actually have a smartphone

    --
    May Peace Prevail On Earth
  8. The diagnosis is... by AdmiralXyz · · Score: 4, Funny

    "You have severe inflammation of the cerebral cortex, human. The only cure is to wire your brain into the AI Overmind. Proceed at once to the nearest Community Conversion Center."

    --
    Dislike the Electoral College? Lobby your state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
  9. How many people... by tompaulco · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How many people in the world that live several hours walk from a doctor or hospital have smartphones? How well does that smartphone work with no coverage? I don't think they tend to put in cell towers in areas where the nearest human population complex is 30 miles away.

    --
    If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
  10. As a non AI physician by Dunbal · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is a terrible idea. However I guarantee that the AI algorithm will have a "success" rate of around 85%, since that is the rate at which illnesses spontaneously cure themselves. This rate is why homeopathy, snake oil salesmen, faith healers and all other forms of shamans and charlatans manage to convince people of their effectiveness. Too bad that 15% of the patients will suffer permanent disability or die using these methods. That's the part of the statistic we doctors manage to concentrate on and improve, the 15% that really need help...

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    1. Re:As a non AI physician by oddTodd123 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Doctors are notoriously stubborn and arrogant about their abilities, and they refuse to believe that a significant share of medical practice can be routinized to be performed by much lower skilled and educated people. From simple hand washing to using checklists, doctors have steadfastly resisted any change that implies they could be doing their job better, or that someone with less training could do the same job.

      Nobody is suggesting the smartphone perform open heart surgery, but if it can use image recognition on a rash to tell you to try calamine lotion before going to see a dermatologist, that can save everyone a lot of time and money. Or, to use a personal example, after I fell on my shoulder, it could guide me through a series of tests (of the type "does it hurt when you do X?") and suggest I may have an AC joint separation and I should see an orthopedist. In the last example, I was originally diagnosed over the phone (by a non-orthopedist doctor) after exactly that experience. The default choice in a case such as mine would be to go to the ER. That would have turned out to be an inefficient and expensive choice and wasted a lot of people's time.

  11. Re:LOL no Tricorder tag? by RangerRick98 · · Score: 4, Funny

    My first thought was "Please state the nature of the medical emergency."

    --
    "You're older than you've ever been, and now you're even older."
  12. Facebook status update by hamburgler007 · · Score: 4, Funny

    has herpes.

  13. Can I borrow your phone? by Comboman · · Score: 3, Funny

    Can I borrow your phone? I need to do a colonoscopy.

    --
    Support Right To Repair Legislation.