Can AI safely assess patients’ needs before they step into a doctor’s office? A study led by researchers at Google and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and published in The Lancet today, offers an encouraging first look. As Google’s first-ever publication in the main journal of The Lancet, this research marks a significant milestone.
In a real-world clinical study at BIDMC’s ambulatory primary care clinic, 98 patients consulted AMIE, our research diagnostic AI chatbot, ahead of urgent care visits. Supervising physicians monitored the interactions in real time, and not a single conversation needed to be interrupted based on predefined safety criteria. And clinicians reported that the AI summaries helped them prepare for visits in 75% of cases and influenced their approach to care in more than half. AMIE’s differential diagnoses also matched the doctors’ final diagnoses 90% of the time.
While larger clinical trials are needed to assess patient-facing AI at scale, the findings suggest the potential for AI to enhance the patient-physician relationship and ease the strain on healthcare workers. And they demonstrate meaningful progress as we push the boundaries of what’s possible for AI in science and health. Read the complete research paper in The Lancet.
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