AI diagnoses tumours faster, more accurately than doctors

BioMind, an artificial intelligence(AI) system, has defeated the best Chinese doctors in diagnosing brain tumours and hematoma expansion.

It won the two rounds of competitions organised against the human physicians.

The AI had an accuracy rate of 87 percent of 225 cases of brain tumour in 15 minutes unlike its human counterparts who had an accuracy rate of 66 percent in the same time.

It also had an accuracy of 83 percent in the cases of brain hematoma expansion cases while the human doctors had a 63 percent accuracy rate.

The outcomes for human physicians were quite normal and even better than the average accuracy in ordinary hospitals, said Gao Peiyi, head of the radiology department at Tiantan Hospital.

The AI system was trained by feeding it tens of thousands of images of nervous system-related diseases archived by the Tiantan hospital over the years.

Wang Yongjun, executive vice president of the Tiantan Hospital, said the contest was organised to help doctors learn and improve their skills, not to put humans and technology in competition with each other.

“I hope through this competition, doctors can experience the power of artificial intelligence. This is especially so for some doctors who are skeptical about artificial intelligence. I hope they can further understand AI and eliminate their fears toward it,” said Wang.