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New IBM computer system Watson better than a physician in the diagnosis of leukemia
Since the symptoms of leukemia are usually nonspecific, the disease is often made only by chance diagnosis. According to media reports, the Watson IBM computer system has now diagnosed a woman with a form of blood cancer that physicians had previously failed to recognize.
Leukemia is often discovered by accident
In Germany alone, around 11,500 people suffer from leukemia each year. It is said to be over 900,000 worldwide. Men are more likely to get blood cancer than women. The causes of the disease are not yet clear. Since the symptoms are so unspecific, a random diagnosis is the rule rather than the exception, according to health experts. But technological advances could change that.
Artificial intelligence has saved the life of a woman in Japan. IBM's Watson computer system diagnosed her with a form of blood cancer that doctors did not recognize. (Image: sakkmesterke / fotolia.com) Artificial intelligence saves woman's life
According to a report by the Indian television network New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV), IBM's Watson computer system has diagnosed a patient with a form of cancer that was previously unrecognized by physicians. As it says in a post by Futurism, artificial intelligence has saved the lives of a woman's diagnosis.
Wrong diagnosis for other blood cancer form
According to reports, doctors from the Medical Institute of the University of Tokyo in Japan, using IBM's artificial intelligence, have for the first time discovered a rare form of blood cancer in a 60-year-old female patient who previously had an incorrect diagnosis for another blood cancer (acute myeloid leukemia ).
Computer system took ten minutes for the diagnosis
It is said that the doctors decided to consult Watson for the diagnosis. The computer system concluded that the patient suffers from a rare form of leukemia after comparing the woman's genetic information with the genetic data from 20 million clinical cancer studies. The artificial intelligence needed only ten minutes. Thereafter, the appropriate treatment started, previously the patient had been treated without success.
The potential to "change the world"
Professor Satoru Miyano from the University of Tokyo said the result provided proof that artificial intelligence has the potential to "change the world" in the years to come. And Seiji Yamada from the National Institute of Computer Science and chairman of the Japan Society for Artificial Intelligence added that this was the first case in the country where artificial intelligence saved someone's life.
Faster and cheaper diagnoses
Watson is an artificial intelligence developed by IBM. The system is able to analyze and compare huge amounts of data. Watson became known to the wider public as it beat the world's best players in the quiz show Jeopardy. Meanwhile, the system is used among other things by banks and in the financial sector. In medicine, experts hope that Watson will provide more accurate, faster and more cost-effective diagnoses and fewer errors in the future. (Ad)