An AI and machine learning model tuned to decode hastily scrawled notes from doctors:
Google is developing an AI model that can decipher difficult-to-read handwriting, with a focus on notes and prescriptions written by doctors. The search giant announced during its annual conference in India on Monday that it was working with pharmacists to create a tool in Google Lens that can decode messily written medical notes (via TechCrunch).
Google showcased the feature during the event, demonstrating its capability to specifically detect medicines in a handwritten prescription. There's no detail yet on when the new text deciphering feature is expected to launch, only that "much work still remains to be done before this system is ready for the real world."
From the TechCrunch article:
[...] The feature, currently a research prototype and not ready for the public yet, allows users to either take a picture of the prescription or upload one from the photo library. Once the image is processed, the app detects and highlights the medicines mentioned in the note, a Google executive demonstrated.
"This will act as an assistive technology for digitizing handwritten medical documents by augmenting the humans in the loop such as pharmacists, however no decision will be made solely based on the output provided by this technology," the company said in a statement.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 22, @09:04PM (4 children)
> decipher difficult-to-read handwriting, ... prescriptions written by doctors
Combine this new tech with the current trend of "auto-correct-whole-words" and...
.
.
.
What could possibly go wrong?
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday December 22, @09:54PM (3 children)
/\t /\ /\/\/\/\/\/\/\. t||5 5hO\/|d 6c ehckec| f|r54.
(translation: At a minimum, this should be checked first.)
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Funny) by captain normal on Thursday December 22, @10:21PM (2 children)
i'd much rather have translations of the notes I've scribbled at 3 AM when I come out of a dream with a brilliant ideal.
"It is easier to fool someone than it is to convince them that they have been fooled" Mark Twain
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 22, @11:02PM
> ... brilliant ideal.
Planning on saving the world? Or was that brilliant idea "fixed" by some artificial idiot?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 23, @01:55PM
That happens to me every time I fall asleep watching The Flaming Globes of Sigmund [youtube.com].
(Score: 2) by pe1rxq on Thursday December 22, @09:12PM (4 children)
In a sane world the doctor would be typing the prescription (Mine is), and the problem simple seases to exist.
Only for google itself would this make any sense.
It puts a shitload of computing power at work with questionable results and the added bonus of completly screwing doctor patient confidentiality.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 22, @11:04PM
> In a sane world the doctor would be typing the prescription
^ this ^
Much too simple for Google to make any money on, so it's bound to be marginalized, grrrrr.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday December 23, @12:21AM (2 children)
Hear, hear.
Considering how long as it's been a problem, you'd think they'd make typed (or at least neatly printed) orders on prescriptions and medical charts a requirement to maintain a medical license in good standing.
I mean, you're getting paid a ridiculous amount to perform the diagnosis. Which becomes completely useless and even potentially fatal if it's mistreated because you couldn't spend an extra three seconds writing the prescribed treatment down clearly.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday December 23, @02:56AM (1 child)
The doctor knows what he wants.
What we need is a menu driven interface so the doctor can be absolutely precise in making sure everyone is on the same page.
I wrote some more down the page on my thoughts on this...how to precisely describe a drug, yet keep this info private between the doctor, patient, and pharmacist. The weak point is the pharmacist, as that's where there's a conjunction of drug ID and payment information.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday December 23, @04:22AM
The doctor also knows a mature and well established way of communicating what he wants without any risk of tech failure:
Writing.
That he chooses to scribble instead is nobody's fault but his own.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday December 22, @09:29PM
No! I dont want G to have my medical records or, create once based of the, notes from my doctor. Not sharing pictures of them our uploading them to the cloud. Doctors should just work on their penmanship or get a better secretary.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 22, @10:12PM (1 child)
Ok, so now you've translated my doctor's handwriting. Though why into Swahili?
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday December 23, @01:36AM
Because it might as well have been written in Swahili, of course!
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Thursday December 22, @11:37PM
all the data will be anonymized of course. Google will never identify you with your doctor, or the prescriptions he writes.
Hmmmm - wonder if law enforcement in abortion banning states can identify girls/women who have had abortions from this data? Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, stand by for gale force controversy!!
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday December 23, @02:04AM
It's a database of supposedly every drug out there.
We need this in a local database, residing completely inside a phone or computer that has NO connection to the internet ( or cellphone network. No SIM card! ), To be personally kept by the physician.
The physician can select anything in the database to provide the QR code that links to the selected drug. That link, for that particular drug, containing no other information whatsoever, can be verified for it's privacy and correctness, can now be read and given to the pharmacist, along with printed copy of the prescription, verified by the doctor for accuracy.
The main database, is public. About as private as a copy of the PDR on Amazon.
The physician accesses it occasionally just to update his local copy in his private machine.
At no time does the physician access the public reference database for an individual drug. He gets the whole shebang, providing no information to the public other than he downloaded the file.
I am thinking this to be done similar to downloading WIKI files as .slob or similar as used in the AARD (F-droid) Wiki reader.
Except only the providers of this drug Wiki have write permissions. This Wiki itself should be public. Funded by the public, and suggest administration by an entity such as the one who presently publishes the PDR.
AARD seems to have a good reader. All that's needed is appropriate .slob files and an export link as QR code to save bookmarks to your own local copy.
Well, that's my thoughts on this. Make the whole thing public.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Informative) by dw861 on Friday December 23, @03:01AM
Or, there is already transkribus, without the messy Google baggage.
https://readcoop.eu/transkribus/ [readcoop.eu]
(Score: 2) by VLM on Friday December 23, @02:55PM
I've only seen EMRs for the past couple years, although I'm sure handwriting still exists "somewhere"