AI will soon face a major test: Can it differentiate Covid-19 from flu? - STAT

With Covid-19 cases surging in parts of the U.S. at the start of flu season, developers of artificial intelligence tools are about to face their biggest test of the pandemic: Can they help doctors differentiate between the two respiratory illnesses, and accurately predict which patients will become severely ill? Numerous AI models are promising to do exactly that by sifting data on symptoms and analyzing chest X-rays and CT scans. For now, the increased availability of coronavirus testing means AI is unlikely to be relied upon for frontline detection and diagnosis. But it will become increasingly important for figuring out how aggressively to treat patients and which ones are likely to need intensive care beds, ventilators, and other equipment that could become scarce if there's a Covid-flu "twindemic." "That's on the forefront of everyone's mind right now," said Anna Yaffee, an emergency medicine physician at Emory University who helped build an online symptom checker to assess Covid-19 patients.