Google AI platform aids oncologists in breast cancer screenings

Google Health recently announced the results of a study it says indicates artificial intelligence could be more effective in spotting breast cancer than human oncologists.

WHY IT MATTERS The findings, published in Nature, indicate that Google’s AI model spotted breast cancer in de-identified screening mammograms with greater accuracy, with fewer false positives and false negatives than experts.

Google’s London-based AI subsidiary DeepMind worked with Cancer Research UK Imperial Centre, Northwestern University and Royal Surrey County Hospital to train and deploy the AI model, which scanned data from more than 76,000 women in the U.K. and more than 15,000 women in the U.S.

The AI model was also able to more effectively screen for breast cancer using less information than human doctors, relying solely on X-ray images, while doctors had access to patient histories and prior mammograms.