University of West Scotland (UWS) researchers believe that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can automatically diagnose certain lung diseases, as reported by Interesting Engineering.
(Photo : RONNY HARTMANN/AFP via Getty Images)
A combo shows chest radiographs of a patient with COVID-19 disease (L) and a patient with normal lungs at the community hospital (Klinikum Magdeburg) in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on April 28, 2021, amid the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.
Currently, to diagnose lung diseases, a patient needs to undergo various tests. These tests can be time-consuming and costly.
What the AI Can Do
The AI software created by researchers works with the equipment being created to detect COVID-19 from X-ray images. This software can detect certain lung diseases in just a few minutes with an accuracy rate of approximately 98 percent.
The researchers also aim to address the staff shortages in hospitals via the software.They want to incorporate AI with diagnostic tools to deliver fast and cost-effective results. An example is to combine X-ray imaging with AI development.
The AI works by using X-ray imaging, then it will compare it to a database of thousands of images from patients with Covid, pneumonia, and tuberculosis.
It will then use the AI to process deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). CNN is a deep learning used to process data to make a diagnosis.
During the testing stage, it showed that the technique was 98 percent accurate.
Alleviating Stress and Pressure in Hospitals
If the AI system successfully diagnoses a lung disease, the patient will be sent for a biopsy, which is the removal of a small piece of lung tissue to examine it further.
Currently, the process can cost more than $1,000 and can take a week. It is believed that the AI image analysis combined with the deep learning can help doctors make a faster, more accurate diagnoses and save lives.
This means that AI technology can be very useful in alleviating the pressure and stress on hospitals. If successful, the method used by the AI system can reduce the number of false positives and false negatives in diagnosis.
The difference between false positives and false negatives is that false positives indicate an incorrect diagnosis. However, a false negative means the AI will not detect the disease that causes the disease. The AI system can be an invaluable tool in helping doctor detect and treat serious illnesses.
More importantly, the current trend in healthcare is moving toward digital radiography, which means that X-ray images will soon be stored in the cloud.
The cloud is where the AI system will retrieve patient information and apply the data to its analysis process. With this development, it can help improve the diagnosis skills of doctors.
It is estimated that the AI technology will be more powerful and accurate in diagnosing lung diseases compared to human radiologists. While it is still a few years away from being used in the real world, it is becoming a reality.
It will be interesting to see the advancement of AI software in the medical field.
Related Article: New Anti COVID-19 AI Can Also Detects Lung Diseases and Cancers: Here's How 'Swarm Learning' Works
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Written by April Fowell
