Bets in AI - Computer Vision

Despite the sometimes exaggerated expectations of the potential applications of AI in everyday life and work in the past 10 years, there are a few elements within the domain that continue to show promise with advances made by researchers and industry fairly regularly. One of those is Computer Vision (CV), which is fundamental to a number of technologies with practical uses, like Augmented Reality. As with applications of other areas of AI, the most practical here is decision support.

Below is a great article on the team and vision at Paige, which is using CV for medical imaging purposes:

https://venturebeat.com/2019/12/18/paige-raises-45-million-to-detect-cancer-with-computer-vision/

Crowdsourcing in health tech

Highly recommended read on the application of deep learning to the dermatology arena, that a research team at Google has pursued. This is what I believe to be the promise next generation of health tech start-ups and emerging companies - where curation can be sourced globally.

https://ai.googleblog.com/2019/09/using-deep-learning-to-inform.html

The interesting bit is that a new Netflix original series, “Diagnosis” has come out about the same time (this month, Sept 2019) and covers specific stories where crowdsourcing has led to positive next steps for patients and their families.

https://www.netflix.com/title/80201543

An area worth exploring further.

Healthcare benefiting from ML

Really exciting to see progress in application of machine learning (ML) techniques to the world of healthcare, in ways that are immediately applicable to improving the ways care is provided. In this case, it should be possible to better know the timing when a strong medical intervention is necessary, and how early.

https://www.csail.mit.edu/news/using-ai-predict-breast-cancer-and-personalize-care

https://www.statnews.com/2019/07/17/an-experimental-ai-system-can-predict-when-pancreatic-cysts-will-become-cancerous/

The machine becomes an advisor that we and our clinicians can start to lean on more, for more peace of mind and a better life.

Helpful wearables

I had to get a new thermometer while battling the flu the other day. When looking on the shelf at the local CVS, I came across a reasonably priced smart thermometer, called Kinsa, and decided to try it out.

It was a very positive experience, all the way from setup via Bluetooth. 

Especially pleasant (I'd go as far as calling it a delightful UX), was the way the application opened up and instead of jumping into the typical homescreen, dashboard, or menu initial screen -- it had a conversation with me, through a super simple chat interface. After answering a few questions, my user profile was created and the app was ready to help me, with my single need of taking a medical device reading (in this case, temperature), and suggesting some next steps based on that (should I call the doctor? are my symptoms serious?) - which is all that I wanted from this app and device. 

Hats off to the Kinsa team for designing this experience, and obviously testing it, to make sure it's as easy and useful for all of us to use. 

It made my life easier and I'm grateful for having this product available in the local pharmacy. 

The experience and guidance that it provided beyond a traditional thermometer, was well worth the premium extra couple of bucks it cost.