Google recently announced two new advancements for its project AMIE, a conversational AI for healthcare.
Imagine an AI that can assist doctors, engage with patients, and diagnose complex medical conditions with near-specialist accuracy. That’s Google’s AMIE.
Announced at The Check Up ‘24 as an AI chatbot for transforming doctor-patient conversations, project AMIE is now advancing towards understanding complex medical cases and preparing for real-world use.
It could change how we access medical care.
Let’s know more about these advancements!
For starters: What is Project AMIE?
Google researchers Alan Karthikesalingam and Vivek Natarajan developed Articulate Medical Intelligence Explorer (AMIE), an AI system designed to engage in patient consultations and support diagnostic processes.
As a conversational AI, AMIE learns from real medical data, including multiple-choice, longer, open-ended questions, and recordings of doctor-patient talks.
AMIE’s performance was evaluated through simulated patient encounters using trained actors. These interactions were then benchmarked against consultations conducted by 20 board-certified primary care physicians.
The evaluation demonstrated AMIE’s capacity to conduct patient interviews at a level comparable to that of practising physicians.
Google’s new advancements in AMIE
AMIE in cardiomyopathies and breast cancer diagnosis
Researchers tested AMIE with two medical areas: complex heart muscle problems and breast cancer.
Because these conditions require up-to-date medical knowledge, AMIE was given access to web-based medical studies, guidelines, and resources, ensuring its assessments were based on the latest research.
They also added a “self-check” feature to let AMIE look at its thinking and find any missing information, making its assessments better and more accurate.
The test results were beyond expectations. In these medical cases, AMIE’s diagnoses and treatment plans were almost as good as those of specialists.
This is important because AMIE could help fill gaps in healthcare, especially where it’s hard to see a specialist because of location, lack of resources, or too many patients.
For example, in a small-town clinic, if a patient has a complex heart problem, AMIE could help the local doctor by giving information that would normally take a long time to get from a distant specialist.
This quick access to specialist knowledge could mean faster diagnoses, better treatments, and better patient health. The self-check feature is also key because it helps people trust the system.
By knowing its limits and always trying to improve, AMIE can be a helpful tool for doctors, not a replacement for them.
Partnering with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC)
Google’s second big step with AMIE is testing it in real life. They’re working with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) to see how AMIE works in a real hospital setting.
This marks AMIE’s transition from research to real-world application. The study will evaluate whether AMIE can efficiently collect patient information before doctor visits (for a specific health problem).
The hope is that AMIE can make this process faster, so doctors can spend less time on paperwork and more time helping patients.
The study will also look at what doctors and patients think about using AI like AMIE.
It’s important to know if people are comfortable with it and if they have any concerns. Researchers will watch AMIE closely, checking its accuracy and efficiency, and how it affects the patient’s overall experience.
They’ll also take feedback from doctors and patients through surveys and interviews.
This complete approach will give valuable information about how AMIE can work in real time and its problems and challenges.
This real-world test is a key step in figuring out how to safely and effectively use AI like AMIE in everyday healthcare, so AI can help doctors do their jobs even better.
Transforming healthcare with AMIE
Google’s AMIE is a big leap for AI in healthcare, showing it can get close to the knowledge of a medical specialist.
During research, the AMIE has done well in tough medical areas like heart and cancer care, as well as real specialists.
Now, it’s time to test it in real life. Google’s partnership with BIDMC will assist in this.
The test will see if AMIE can help gather patient info before appointments and how doctors and patients feel about using AI.
This real-world testing is key to seeing AMIE use cases and how to use AI safely in healthcare.
-By Rohini Kundu and the AHT team
