Chinese AI programme tracks childhood diseases "like a doctor"

The platform makes use of medical data like test results and health records.

A new artificial intelligence platform in China has been developed to identify childhood diseases by combing through through test results, health records and even handwritten notes for diagnosis . The programme can reportedly provide accurate diagnosis like a doctor, according to a report by AFP.

“It can mimic a human paediatrician to interpret and integrate all types of medical data -- patient complaints, medical history, blood and imaging tests -- to make a diagnosis,” Kang Zhang, a researcher at the University of California, told AFP.

Its researchers noted on Nature Medicine that it can discover fields that both statistical methods and doctors may have overlooked. The new technology would also help paediatricians save time and money. 

“In total, 101.6 million data points from 1,362,559 pediatric patient visits presenting to a major referral center were analyzed to train and validate the framework,” researchers said in its abstract.