App beats doctors at symptom assessment

LONDON-BASED Babylon Health says its artificial intelligence technology, in tests, has outperformed most physicians in assessing disease symptoms, throwing down a challenge to doctors.

Babylon, which was founded by entrepreneur Ali Parsa in 2013, is one of a number of startups tapping into the promise of AI to help patients and doctors sift through symptoms to come up with a diagnosis.

It aims to offer health advice of family-doctor quality by using AI delivered through a smartphone chatbot app.

In a representative sample of questions set by the Royal College of General Practitioners for its final exams to qualify as a family doctor, the Babylon app achieved an 81 percent success level, well ahead of the average pass mark over the last five years of 72 percent, the company said.

But Martin Marshall, vice chairman of the RCGP, said AI systems could not be compared to highly-trained medical professionals.

“No app or algorithm will be able to do what a GP does,” he said.

“An app might be able to pass an automated clinical knowledge test but the answer to a clinical scenario isn’t always cut and dried, there are many factors to take into account, a great deal of risk to manage, and the emotional impact a diagnosis might have on a patient to consider.”

Babylon showed off its AI technology in a public demonstration on Wednesday evening.

In a separate test against seven highly experienced primary care doctors, Babylon’s AI correctly diagnosed 80 percent of illnesses, against a range of 64-97 percent for the professionals, it said.

Parsa said the results demonstrated Babylon’s AI could help bring health care to millions of people who have no access to even basic services, adding he was “saddened” by the criticism as the app was never designed to replace doctors.

“Even in the richest nations, primary care is becoming increasingly unaffordable and inconvenient, often with waiting times that make it not readily accessible,” he said.

Malcolm Grant, chairman of the state-funded National Health Service in England, said the service was looking at a range of new technologies, including AI.