Future life span of humans is now predictable: Scientists

New Delhi : The scientists have now developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) system that is capable of predicting a life span of a person with the help of images of their organ.

The AI system has been developed by a team scientists from University of Adelaide in Australia and gave 69 per cent of accurate prediction when tested over 48 patients.

This is comparable to ‘manual’ predictions by clinicians, researchers said. The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports. 

“Predicting the future of a patient is useful because it may enable doctors to tailor treatments to the individual,” said Luke Oakden-Rayner, PhD student at the University of Adelaide.

“The accurate assessment of biological age and the prediction of a patient’s longevity has so far been limited by doctors’ inability to look inside the body and measure the health of each organ,” said Mr. Oakden-Rayner.

“Our research has investigated the use of ‘deep learning’, a technique where computer systems can learn how to understand and analyse images,” he said.

“Although for this study only a small sample of patients was used, our research suggests that the computer has learnt to recognise the complex imaging appearances of diseases, something that requires extensive training for human experts,” he said.

In the whole, it was seen that the computer machines made most confident predictions for the patients suffering with severe chronic diseases such as emphysema and congestive heart failure.

“Instead of focusing on diagnosing diseases, the automated systems can predict medical outcomes in a way that doctors are not trained to do, by incorporating large volumes of data and detecting subtle patterns,” Mr. Oakden-Rayner said.

“Our research opens new avenues for the application of artificial intelligence technology in medical image analysis, and could offer new hope for the early detection of serious illness, requiring specific medical interventions,” he said.