AI outperforms humans in diagnosing heart failure and cancers

Deep learning programs at a diagnostic imaging lab in Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) now routinely defeat their human counterparts in diagnosing heart failure, detecting various cancers and predicting their strength. Anant Madabhushi, PhD, Director at the Center for Computational Imaging and Personalized Diagnostics in CWRU, can point to several recent examples of apparent cyber-superiority witnessed in his laboratory. But despite the increasingly sophisticated technologies being developed, he dismisses the idea of a coming future when such machines might replace pathologists and radiologists. "There's initially always going to be some wincing and anxiety among pathologists and radiologists over this idea – that our computational imaging technology can outperform us or even take our jobs," says Madabhushi. He contends that his research is not only creating powerful new diagnostic tools, but also helping to identify those patients with less advanced diseases who may not need more aggressive therapy.