Computers have helped drive the medical industry to better and faster diagnosis as well as helping to figure out new treatments for a variety of issues. Until recently, they have primarily relied on programming that uses a linear – or machine – learning model. This type of model is great if you already know the kind of thing that you need to know. Simple things like “does this person have lung cancer or is a brain tumor causing these problems?” But what happens when the situation is more complex? What happens when you don’t already know what you are looking for? What happens when you know there is a problem but don’t have any idea what it could be? How does a machine learning model handle that? In short, it doesn’t. A machine learning model can solve for ‘x’ very well so long it knows if ‘x’ is either apples or oranges. When ‘x’ might not even be fruit, you need a different approach.
That’s why deep learning models have developed. These models try to mimic the way the human brain takes in and processes information. Instead of looking at a set of predetermined variables and solving for one particular answer (like you used to do in Algebra class) the deep learning model takes in all the information at once and looks for correlations and patterns. Think of it this way. You look at a picture of someone and right away your brain takes in all the information. You can see if the person is sweating, the pupils are dilated, hair length, freckles, whiskers, and a ton of other information. If you already have a store of information at your disposal, you might already be able to make certain deductions about that person’s health. A deep learning model does the same thing. Already programmed with a vast amount of medical knowledge concerning symptoms and their causes, a deep learning machine can make a diagnosis before a human would see the problem. This is because the machine can hold more specialized information, recall it faster, and will often have much greater attention to detail than most people.
A recent study in Nature Communications suggests that deep learning models could be very useful indeed for medical professionals, particularly in the area of brain imaging. This is because the brain is immeasurably complex with more variables than what can be truly accounted for in the machine learning models. These models have been held back though, generally by the fact they take some time to get the results needed. Data may need to be run through the machines a few times to train the program, to give it a chance to develop the best ways to analyze the data and produce good results. So long as the deep model is ‘trained’ in this way then the results are typically better than the older machine learning models.
Does that mean that linear, machine learning is strictly a thing of the past? Not at all. Those models still do better when it comes to simple tasks with a limited amount of variables. In fact, the two models can even be used in conjunction. A trained deep learning model can be used to establish the necessary variables to enable a machine learning model to take over and provide the needed solutions.
Where might deep learning take us in the future? In addition to analyzing the brain and being able to make early diagnosis of cancer, Alzheimer’s, and other diseases, it could be applied to other things like an annual physical. Imagine you go to the doctor and instead of a lengthy examination (preceded by a long wait) and blood work that might take days to get back, you just walked into a scanner, got a finger pricked and the deep learning model told you your level health and anything wrong with you in a few minutes, complete with recommended treatments? It isn’t that far-fetched.
How can you help make that future a reality just a little bit faster? By signing up with TARTLE and sharing your medical data with universities and hospitals working on these models. That will give them more data to work with which will help them better train those deep learning models, which will one day make your trip to the doctor’s office a lot easier and faster.
What’s your data worth? Sign up and join the TARTLE Marketplace with this link here.
