How AI should recognize dementia in the future
Brain scans: in the future, AI should detect dementia more effectively than doctors. (Photo: pixfly / Shutterstock)
So far, it can take weeks before doctors can diagnose dementia. An AI from the University of Cambridge should be able to do this in the future with a brain scan. Tests are running.
It can currently take several weeks for doctors to prove that their patients have dementia. Sometimes several brain scans are necessary. It would be important to diagnose dementia as early as possible so that appropriate treatments can slow the progression of the disease. Researchers at Cambridge University have now developed artificial intelligence (AI) that is said to be able to detect dementia with just a brain scan.
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AI should be able to detect dementia very early
After initial tests, it is hoped that the AI will be able to use the results of a brain scan to identify patterns that the human eye cannot see. The system then compares the patterns with the brain scans of thousands of people with dementia in a database in order to be able to make a corresponding diagnosis. The preclinical tests suggest that the AI can detect signs of dementia in the brains of sufferers years before possible symptoms such as this develop BBC writes.
Now the AI is to be tested as part of a clinical study. The tests will be carried out at Cambridge University’s teaching hospital (Addenbrooke’s Hospital) as well as several memory clinics across the UK. According to the researchers, around 500 patients will take part in the course of the first year.
Slow down the progression of dementia
“If we intervene early, we can start treatments early and slow the progression of the disease,” said Zoe Kourtzi of Cambridge University to the BBC. At the same time, further damage could be avoided. “And it is likely that symptoms will appear much later in life or never”. The neurologist Tim Rittmann, who worked on the study, calls the AI a “fantastic development”. Neurologists could make the diagnosis faster and more reliably and help the patient with further life planning.
