If certain pathologies are invisible to the naked eye (we think of Alzheimer’s, to AIDS, or at the cystic fibrosis, impossible to detect without thorough examinations), others (such as Trisomy 21) can be diagnosed just by observing the patient’s face: an abnormal lump, a suspicious spot, a prominence can then be the sign of a rare disease …
Problem: there are few specialists trained to recognize these physiological criteria … rare diseases are not diagnosed for months or even years of examinations, so much time wasted in initiating appropriate treatment.
A team of British researchers (under the direction of Professors Christoffer Nellåker and Andrew Zisserman) may have just developed a new technology which would make it easier to identify rare pathologies from… photos.
Abraham Lincoln scrutinized
It is in fact a computer software, equipped with a facial recognition system and a colossal database: when a digital photo is submitted to it, the software analyzes 36 facial features. Shape of the brow bone, size of the eyelids, angle of the eyes, relief of the nose and nostrils, bulging of the forehead… The computer scrutinizes our face from every angle. Then, it compares the results with its database, in which the characteristics of 90 different pathologies are stored …
According to researchers at the University of Oxford, the software is able to give an exact diagnosis 93% of the time. In fact, when scientists presented him with the photo of Abraham Lincoln, the computer was able to detect the Marfan syndrome from which indeed suffered the 16th President of the United States …
“Of course, the results of this software are not sufficient to make a reliable diagnosis, analyzes Christoffer Nellåker. But they can get us on track and speed up exams considerably. A real hope, in short, for the 3 million French people who suffer from rare diseases: half of them are children.
What do you think of this technology? You believe in it ? Come discuss in the forum.
