Oct 21, 2020

The artificial intelligence tool designed to diagnose dementia in minutes

According to the Japanese health ministry, as of 2012, around 4.62 million Japanese people were living with dementia. By 2025, that number is expected to rise to more than 7 million. But working out of Tokyo, data analysis company, Fronteo, is aiming to begin clinical trials of a new artificial intelligence program that could drastically cut down dementia diagnosis time. 

As soon as early next year, the diagnostic tool will be used to analyse five – ten minutes of conversation between a patient and their doctor. Once the conversations have been analysed, diagnosis should only take about one minute. 

The system, which takes the conversations between doctors and patients and transcribes them into text, uses the transcription to analyse the structure and word choice of the patient. The doctor then takes the AI analysis to help make their final diagnosis. So far, during basic testing, the system has accurately diagnosed dementia 85% of the time, which is a similar percentage achieved by medical specialists. 

Taking the system into clinical trials will further test the program’s accuracy as it is used in more real world diagnosis environments. As the objective diagnosis of dementia can be difficult, requiring a series of interviews and subjective judgement, Fronteo hopes this new AI system can help doctors make more efficient diagnosis, even if they are not specialists. 

So far, AI is only being used to analyse images in licensed medical equipment, such as endoscopes, making Fronteo the first company in Japan to conduct clinical trials of AI analysing conversation. They have said that they hope the program will help to alleviate stress on both doctors and patients, and make the process of early diagnosis of dementia must smoother. 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Digital intervention to decimate depression for home care recipients

With more than one million Australians receiving in-home aged care, a lack of access to adequate and appropriate mental health treatments is a growing concern. Read More

Male Nurse Granted Bail After Alleged Sexual Assault on 89yo With Dementia

WARNING: Graphic Content   Male nurse Michael William Schuppe, 59, was granted bail on Sunday after being charged with the sexual assault of an 89-year old aged care resident with ‘extreme dementia,’ in October this year. It is alleged that Mr Schuppe digitally penetrated the 89 year old victim in front of a co-worker, after... Read More

Why people with dementia don’t all behave the same

People with dementia experience a range of psychological symptoms and behaviour changes. Read More
Advertisement