Google AI tool for retinal scan can predict Heart Condition

Google AI tool for retinal scan can predict Heart Condition
Google AI tool for retinal scan can predict Heart Condition

Google CEO Sundar Pichai thinks that artificial intelligence will ultimately be the most powerful technology that humanity will create. Google AI tool for retinal scan can predict Heart Condition  “I think there are deep, real concerns, and I don’t think we have the answers,” she said. “For sure, I think we need to have a thoughtful sense about – do we end up developing something we cannot control.” Pichai, in contrast to certain others—most notably Tesla CEO Elon Musk—believes in the advantages of AI and thinks that the risks that are occasionally discussed are not the ones that need to be worried about. Pichai declares, “I am equally certain that it will be more advantageous than anything that has ever happened, and many benefits will start playing out in the next couple of decades. “Here, harnessing the advantages while thoughtfully developing it over time to avoid the pitfalls is important.”

What potential risks will genuinely be a matter of concern, then? Pichai states, “The simplest example that gets talked about, one may say our systems are super intelligent, they are more intelligent than humans, and so they have their own free will, if you will, and they are optimising for something else, and they may make decisions which are not necessarily for the benefit of humanity,” before dismissing the notion, saying, “Those are the far-out concerns. I am not concerned about that [AI predicting Civil War]; I think we should worry about that.”   

“You know, I have a lot of faith in our global systems and how we would approach this, and I think it’s important that as an industry, we self-regulate and have strong ethical approaches to how we do this,” he continues. “There are good examples to be borrowed from genetics, over the last 30-40 years, how the scientific and biological communities have approached this. Medical communities have done that, and I think these are important issues, but I am sure we can work our way through it.”

He continues by saying that all the sectors where AI is now applicable are controlled, further reducing the possibility of damage. Therefore, he continues, “If AI can shape health care tomorrow, it has to navigate the healthcare laws.” We just completed work on diabetic retinopathy, a condition that may cause blindness, and found that we can use AI machine learning to identify it considerably better than humans. It is one of the greatest areas where the advantages will play out over the next 10 to 20 years.

“So imagine rural areas in India where you don’t have ophthalmologists trained in those villages to help diagnose people. Imagine having a tool like that in the hands of doctors in the next ten years,” Pichai continues. We will need AI to handle problems like climate change over time to comprehend what’s occurring and tackle it. Those will be significant challenges. AI will help any doctor diagnose individuals and maybe identify blindness early; it will be entirely curable if identified.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced a new algorithm at an event last week that could predict and assist in preventing cardiovascular events using a single retina scan. The technology could reveal the heart’s health condition with just a look in the eyes after matching the scans with a matrix for cardiovascular risks. The algorithm has proven to be accurate in 70% of cases.

How Does It Function?

Dr Mahipal S. Sachdev, Chairman of Centre of Sight, explained the principles behind Google’s algorithm. “So, if you have a blood vessel that’s narrowing or even in cancer cases, leukaemia or diabetic retinopathy can be thrown up,” the doctor said. As the CEO of HealthifyMe, Tushar Vashisht, put it, “Up until now, we have been playing with rudimentary AI, expert systems, where you had to manually train the AI model with a specific set of data…But now, with transformers, this open vocabulary system has been trained on billions of data points, which can be much better than a prior system for classifying results. Imagine an artificially intelligent brain with billions of neurons trained with all the human intelligence to date. As a result, its capacity to recognise, analyse, and comprehend information is at a finer level than ever before. He continued that AI would assist physicians in managing more patients, pulling down the price point, and allowing for much deeper access for consumers. Still, having a doctor in the loop for medical diagnosis is always better.

Will it fully take over diagnostic?

Zianul Carbiwala, CTO of Tricog Health, described Google’s model as a collaboration between artificial intelligence and medicine. “What we are seeing is that we are getting better diagnostic information, we are getting more inexpensive tests, [can] detect diseases that could have otherwise been detected only by more expensive tests,” he said.

“But ultimately, these tests are tests; so, they have to be put in place by human intelligence, figure into the algorithm of management which includes diagnostics,” said Dr Sandeep Mishra, Director of the Institute of Cardiology, NIMS. They can be utilised to enhance therapy, but they need help to take the role of doctors or human intellect. On Tuesday, Google demonstrated various new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered healthcare capabilities, including an upgraded chatbot that can explain your medical problems and improved search features that let you know if a doctor accepts Medicaid. Why it matters: Big tech firms are competing to incorporate AI into their products, but the outcomes, especially in health care, may have unintended effects or drawbacks, such as racial bias, privacy issues, and ethical dilemmas. The main story: According to Google, their “large language model” for the medical industry, an AI chatbot named Med-PaLM 2, now routinely passes medical test questions with a score of 85%, placing it at the “expert” doctor level.

According to the business, that is an 18% improvement over the system’s prior performance and “far surpasses similar AI models.” ChatGPT, a competing generative AI tool (whose developer, OpenAI, just launched a new, more potent version of its underlying tech), just missed passing the medical tests. According to the firm, to “retrieve medical knowledge, accurately answer medical questions, and provide reasoning,” Google’s system is being educated.

Yes, but Google is aware of the limitations of AI in the medical field.

Greg Corrado, Google’s head of health AI, and Yossi Matias, vice president of engineering and research, wrote in a blog post that “there is still a lot of work to do to ensure [Med-PaLM 2] can function in real-world settings.”

When the tool was “tested against 14 criteria, including scientific factuality, precision, medical consensus, reasoning, bias, and harm,” according to the post, Google discovered “significant gaps.”

We are eager to collaborate with scientists and the international medical community to fill these gaps and comprehend how this technology may enhance healthcare provision.

Ahead of a March 31 re-enrollment deadline, Google’s conversational AI tool Duplex has contacted hundreds of thousands of U.S. healthcare providers to determine if they take Medicaid. The findings are being presented in Google Search.

Shortly, Google Search results will also feature “providers that identify as community health centers offering free or low-cost care,” the firm stated.

Additionally, a revamped version of Fitbit’s health metrics dashboard will soon be made accessible, in certain cases without a membership, to assist users in charting changes and trends in their blood oxygen levels, breathing rate, and skin temperature.

They’re saying that Karen DeSalvo, Google’s chief health officer, told reporters that “the future of health is consumer-driven.”

  • “People expect a mobile-first experience with more personalised insights, services, and care.”
  • Zoom out: Google also uses AI techniques to support the global provision of high-quality, affordable medical tests.
  • In Taiwan and Kenya, ultrasound machines equipped with Google AI are used to find breast cancer and establish the gestational age in pregnant moms.
  • In Sub-Saharan Africa, another Google AI technology that examines chest X-rays for indications of TB is currently being implemented.
  • The business is conscious of the criticisms that “Dr Google” can occasionally direct consumers to inaccurate or hazardous health advice.
  • It has begun adding information panels to YouTube Health about the source of some content to help people judge its reliability and alleviate their worries.
  • According to Garth Graham, director and head of Google/YouTube’s health and public health division, another new YouTube feature aids users in “finding human answers” to their health-related inquiries.
  • A cooperation between Google and ThroughLine, which links consumers to free mental health crisis help in more than 100 nations, was also revealed.
  • The function is targeted at “searches related to suicide, domestic violence and other personal crisis topics,” according to a blog post by DeSalvo. “This will increase the number of crisis helplines at the top of search results.”
  • The larger picture: Tech firms and others have been struggling with what they’ve unleashed, despite their remarkable advancements in using AI to improve healthcare.

Despite having urgent medical requirements, older adults enrolled in Medicare Advantage are having their coverage terminated by AI algorithms, according to a Stat News investigation. According to the Wall Street Journal, Verily Life Sciences, a Google parent firm Alphabet division focusing on treatment personalization, began making employee reductions in January.

The New York Times claims that AI is beginning to find breast malignancies that doctors miss.

According to the Times, the invention is “one of the most concrete signs to date of how AI can improve public health”; however, the system still has to “show it can produce accurate results on women of all ages, ethnicities, and body types,” since it now creates too many false positives.

Technology has transformed the healthcare sector from wearables to virtual consultations in ways we never imagined possible. One such innovation is Google’s new algorithm that uses retinal scans to detect heart conditions. This cutting-edge technology can change how we diagnose a patient using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

The Retinal’s Power

Recent research has revealed a secret relationship between the retina and cardiovascular health. The human retina, often called the “window to the soul,” has long fascinated scientists and medical professionals. This delicate layer of tissue lining the back of our eyes contains a vast network of blood vessels that provide oxygen and nutrients to our visual system.

Knowledge of the algorithm

By examining specific patterns and characteristics within the retinal blood vessels, the Google algorithm, developed by researchers, can detect subtle abnormalities that may indicate underlying heart conditions. This ground-breaking technology not only offers a non-invasive method of diagnosis but also has the potential to identify heart conditions at an earlier stage when they are still treatable.

The Function of Machine Learning and AI

The power of artificial intelligence and machine learning lies at the heart of Google’s algorithm, which can analyze thousands of retinal scans to learn to identify patterns and deviations linked to various cardiovascular conditions. By steadily improving its understanding through feedback loops and improved data, the algorithm can steadily increase its accuracy, making it a crucial weapon in the fight against heart disease.

The Possible Effect

The implications of Google’s algorithm are amazing; currently, diagnosing heart conditions frequently involves invasive procedures or subjective interpretations of symptoms. With this new technology, doctors may be able to detect cardiovascular abnormalities with a simple retinal scan, obviating the need for complex and expensive diagnostic procedures.

Benefits to Patients

Since the algorithm can detect heart conditions early, patients can receive prompt treatment, reducing the risk of complications and improving overall prognosis. For patients, the introduction of this algorithm brings a wealth of benefits. First, the non-invasive nature of the retinal scan makes it a more comfortable and accessible diagnostic method.

Improvement of Healthcare Efficiency

This technology can lessen the burden on healthcare providers by streamlining the diagnostic process and reducing the reliance on expensive tests. Additionally, the algorithm’s capability to detect heart conditions accurately and efficiently can help doctors make more informed decisions and personalise treatment plans for their patients, ultimately revolutionising the healthcare system.

The Road Ahead

Clinical trials and rigorous testing are essential to ensure the algorithm’s accuracy and safety, and regulatory approvals must be obtained to establish its validity and reliability in a clinical setting. Even though Google’s algorithm shows enormous promise, it is important to acknowledge that further research and development are required before it becomes widely available.

The bottom line: Medicine will always require a healthy balance of technological advancement and human knowledge.

Conclusion

Through AI and machine learning, Google’s ground-breaking algorithm provides a non-invasive, accurate, and timely method of detecting cardiovascular abnormalities, which has the potential to revolutionise the diagnosis and treatment of heart conditions. By empowering patients and improving healthcare efficiency, this technology can ultimately save lives and pave the way for a brighter future in healthcare.