In 2015 a group of scientists conducted a pioneering study of breast cancer diagnosis. They gave some tissue samples to sixteen testers and asked them to sort this samples. Blood vessels and milk ducts were stained in red, purple and blue. The only task of the testers was to determinate whether the coloured patterns in the scans indicated breast cancer. Obviously, testers took some training sessions, but after all they went to work. They achieved an impressive score of 85 percent of correctly graded samples. However, scientists noticed that if they sum up single tester result, the score will increase to 99 percent. Most surprising think in this experiment wasn’t result but who were the testers. They weren’t even humans because they were pigeons. Actually, doctors don’t have to warry about losing their jobs due to small birds. However, this experiment showed that if an animal is able to cope with obtaining a correct diagnosis, then why people don’t use computer algorithm to same case.
Computer algorithms already diagnose heart disease, lung disease and stroke. Moreover, there are systems that diagnose polyps during the colonoscopy procedure. We can be sure that if we can photograph and describe the disease, it is also possible to create algorithm which would recognize the disease. There is also high probability that it would be even more precise that human doctor. In addition, whole process of diagnose would be much faster and who knows maybe it would save many lives.
When it comes to your health, would you trust an algorithm? If not, think what scientists should do to change your point of view.
Resources:
https://portal.abczdrowie.pl/niezwykle-umiejetnosci-golebi
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/using-pigeons-to-diagnose-cancer/
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34878151
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0141357
Book – „Hello world” by Hannah Fry
What a fascinating article. I am really curious why they chose pigeons out of all the animals.
If this algorithm is overally more precise than the human is an important matter and should be determined before apllying this idea to healthcare clinics. Every percent counts if it comes to human life.