Robo-docs, using AI to diagnose; Pancreatic cancer; Statins and muscle aches

Inside Health

BBC

Health & Fitness, Science

4.4 • 575 Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2017

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Are we on the cusp of a new era where computers rather than doctors will be doing the diagnosing. Ali Parsa, founder of Babylon Health, believes we are and is developing an online tool using artificial intelligence that diagnoses quicker and more accurately than a doctor. He debates the issues with resident sceptic Dr Margaret McCartney. Mark Porter visits the world's first national tissue bank for pancreatic cancer, set up to aid research into a disease that has seen no outcome improvement for over 40 years. Plus statins and muscle aches; could the drugs' bad press in the media actually increase the odds of people experiencing side effects - the so called nocebo effect?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast,
0:05.4	The Traitors Uncloaked. But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's
0:10.6	Saturday bonus episodes, the Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Ryland, and comedy specials
0:16.2	from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffel and Romm Ranganaethon. However, and maybe I'm biased,
0:21.9	it's really all about the traitors uncloked. So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts,
0:27.4	listen only on BBC Sounds. Hello, thank you for listening to this edition of Inside Health.
0:32.1	I hope you enjoy it. Coming up today, statins and muscle aches. Are we talking our way into a problem and pancreatic cancer?
0:40.7	I visit a pioneering new initiative collecting samples from patients to help come up with better treatments.
0:47.5	I was asked if I would take part in research. I didn't hesitate if I could help anybody else than I was going to, even if it couldn't help me.
0:57.0	When they removed the tumour, popped that into the tissue bank, I didn't want it, so they could have it.
1:05.0	More from Kathy later.
1:07.0	But first, claims that we're about to enter a new era, where computers, rather than doctors, will be doing the diagnosing.
1:15.4	Advances in IET are transforming our world at an incredible pace, so it should come as no surprise that they're now knocking at the door of the inner sanctum of medicine, the consulting room.
1:27.4	British company Babylon Health has developed an online tool using artificial intelligence
1:32.6	that its founder, Ali Parcer, believes will soon be able to make diagnoses quicker and more
1:38.7	accurately than a doctor.
1:40.5	Indeed, he says his research shows it's already better at triaging patients, and the technology is currently being piloted by the NHS-1-1-1 service in parts of London.
1:51.8	So, is this the next stage in the journey from stethoscope to smartphone?
1:56.7	Margaret McCartney, inside health's resident skeptic, who, like me, has a vested interest in the status quo, isn't convinced.
2:04.8	Babylon's Ali Pasa most certainly is.
2:08.0	We created Babylon, Mark, to try and see if we can answer a simple question.
2:13.3	Can we do with healthcare what Google did with information?
	...

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