Google researchers say their new algorithm can see your chances of heart disease.
Researchers from Google and its sibling company, Verily Life Sciences, announced that by scanning the back of a patient's eye their new artificial intelligence algorithm can assess risks for cardiac problems.
The study, published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, suggests that through analyzing the scans, the AI algorithm can detect cardiovascular risk factors, such as the person's age, gender and blood pressure. The examination can predict risk of heart attack and stroke.
This new approach could offer a quicker and more efficient analysis than traditional blood tests. So far, the study shows that the AI algorithm results are roughly as accurate as the current method.
The research opens more possibilities for AI to be incorporated in improving hospital practices. "They're taking data that's been captured for one clinical reason and getting more out of it than we currently do. … Rather than replacing doctors, it's trying to extend what we can actually do," Luke Oakden-Rayner, a medical researcher at the University of Adelaide who specializes in machine learning analysis, told The Verge.