New AI tool ‘able to predict 1,000 diseases’

A NEW artificial intelligence (AI) tool can estimate the risk of more than 1,000 diseases for people in one go, providing key information about their future health, research suggests.

- JANE KIRBY, [e-mail]

Experts have trained and tested the model using anonymised patient record data to help predict what might happen to people over the next decade and beyond.

The team behind the research hope the new model will be in the hands of doctors in five to 10 years to help guide decisions around prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

‘The model works by assessing the probability of whether - and when - people may develop diseases such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and numerous disorders.

‘The tool was fed data and looked for “medical events” in people’s history, such as when illnesses were diagnosed, together with lifestyle factors such as whether people were obese, smoked or drank alcohol, plus their age and sex.

It learned to forecast disease risk from the order in which such events happened and how much time had passed between them.