Why artificial intelligence will democratize medicine| Nacho Hernández Medrano | TEDxMadrid

This talk is a TEDx event, organized independently from the TED conferences.

Nacho Hernandez Medrano is a neurologist with a career in healthcare management, a student of Singularity University and an entrepreneur focused on health information technology. He says that the medical data is growing rapidly and doctors no longer have time to keep up. The artificial intelligence technology will allow "big data" to help physicians worldwide to achieve the best possible medical knowledge for each patient.

If you've ever believed,
in times of sickness,

in the idea of the white-coated wizard,
always impeccably up to date

about all the diagnostics
and their treatments,

today, I'd like to invite you
to see him more critically.

On one hand,
the population has grown older

which is why we have
more and more patients.

On the other,
technology grows exponentially,

which is why we are generating
a sort of inflation of science

in which we produce more knowledge

than we'll ever be able to absorb.

Medical information doubles
every five years.

We know today that physicians have

between 4 and 6 doubts per week,
which is a lot.

Unlike past times,

we don't have time to keep up.

This is the new problem
that we are facing.

What this means is that
when you visit the doctor

the attention you will get
depends on your luck.

Your destiny is in the hands
of the health care professional

who bestows it on you in that moment,

whether or not he is up to date
about your specific condition.

This phenomenon is referred to
in the medical field as variability.

And I assure you, as patients,
this is your worst enemy.

Now, the good news:

The good news is that every day,
specialists write down

great amounts of data
on their clinical histories

that reflect their thought processes

when facing their patient's problems

in conditions of real uncertainty.

They are like the secret sauce
of medical reasoning.

Valuable information
that can't be found in books.

This is why engineers,
accountants and doctors

start to question if it would be useful

to re-use the data already there

to solve the problem of disinformation.

We wonder if we could do something similar

to what jurisprudence
does in the world of law:

using what has been learned
in previous cases

to face present cases in real time.

Generate a system
that supports medical decision,

based on previous collective experience,

a system capable of augmenting
the human mind's capacity

still necessary, of course,
through the power of computing.

And luckily, today we have
the technology needed to do so.

We have digital clinical histories,

- since we've bidden adieu to paper -

that are all compatible with each other.

We have powerful search motors
and technology

for the interpretation of natural language

Artificial Intelligence.

By combining all these,
any doctor from anywhere in the world

will be able to experience

something similar to being in a room

with the top specialists in any field

and will be able to ask

for second opinions about a specific case.

Very soon, it will be routine
for doctors to consult with A.I.

because in order to get there
we don't need perfect computers,

we just need computers good enough

to reduce the mistakes we make today,
nothing more.

This isn't just an idea,
it's not just a project.

What I'm telling you is real.

We are currently developing the algorithm
that will soon make it possible

and we have the enthusiastic support
of several autonomous communities

which is why patients
will soon benefit from A.I.

I want to tell you that our objective

is to give all patients, no matter
where they are or who they are,

access to the best medical knowledge
available.

I want to you to know
this isn't just a small step.

It's a disruptive act toward
democratizing the clinical situation

that will completely change the way
we understand medical care.

Thank you.

(Applause)