This AI tool promises a 'second pair of eyes' to clinicians. Did patients benefit?
A study in Kenya tested an AI tool called AI Consult, which uses GPT-4o to provide real-time clinical feedback to healthcare workers. The tool successfully alerted a clinician to a potential heart defect in an infant, demonstrating its potential as a diagnostic support system.
Why it matters
This highlights the potential for AI to improve diagnostic accuracy and patient outcomes in resource-constrained medical environments.
A 4-month-old boy comes into the clinic with a fever and a stuffy nose. Vyonne Njeri thinks it's just a cold. Then a yellow box pops up on her computer telling her to check his heart — because his heart rate is elevated. Njeri is a registered clinical officer in Nairobi, Kenya; she sees patients on her own like a nurse practitioner. When she listens with a stethoscope she hears a whoosh — a sign that the infant could have a congenital heart defect.
"That's something I would have missed on any other day," Njeri says of the visit a few months ago. "That child would have just gone home." She credits an AI tool that double checks her work for helping her. Njeri referred him to a specialist who confirmed the diagnosis and started him on medications; the child may have to undergo surgery.
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