Can Artificial Intelligence Make Doctors Better?

人工智能可以帮助医生更好地做出诊断

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology may soon be a useful tool for doctors. It may help them better understand and treat diseases like breast cancer in ways that were never before possible.

人工智能技术可能很快会成为医生们的有用工具。它可能有助于医生以前所未有的方式更好地了解和治疗乳腺癌等疾病。

Rishi Rawat teaches AI at the University of Southern California's (USC) Clinical Science Center in Los Angeles. He is part of a team of scientists who are researching how AI and machine learning can more easily recognize cancerous growths in the breast.

Rishi Rawat在南加州大学临床科学中心教授人工智能技术，他也是研究人工智能和机器学习如何更容易诊断乳房癌变的科学团队的一员。

Rawat provides information about cancer cells to a computer. He says this data helps the machine learn.

Rawat向计算机输入癌细胞相关信息，他说这些数据可以帮助这台机器学习。

"...You can put the data into them and they will learn the patterns and the pattern recognition that's important to making decisions."

“你可以输入数据，它们将会学习这些影像，以及对决策非常重要的影像识别。”

David Agus is another USC researcher. He believes that "machines are not going to take the place of doctors."

David Agus是南加州大学另一位研究员。他认为“机器不会取代医生。”

"Computers will not treat patients, but they will help make certain decisions and look for things that the human brain can't recognize these patterns by itself."

“计算机不会治疗病人，但是它们能帮助做出某些决策，并从影像中找出单凭大脑无法识别出的那些东西。”

Once a confirmed cancerous growth is removed, doctors still have to treat the patient to reduce the risk of cancer returning. The form of treatment depends on the kind of cancer. Currently, researchers take a thin piece of tissue, put it on a small piece of glass and add color to better see the cells.

一旦确诊的恶性肿瘤被切除，医生们仍然必须治疗患者以降低癌症复发的风险。治疗形式取决于癌症种类。目前，研究人员会切取薄薄的一块组织，放在一小块玻璃上，然后给该组织切片染色，以便更好地观察细胞。

That process could take days or even longer. Scientists say artificial intelligence can do something better than just count cells. Through machine learning, it can recognize complex patterns, or structures, and learn how the cells are organized.

这一过程可能需要数天，甚至更长时间。科学家们表示，人工智能能做的远远不止于统计细胞。通过机器学习，它可以识别复杂的影像或是结构，并了解细胞的组织形式。

The hope is that machines will soon be able to make a quick identification of cancer that is free of human mistakes.

希望机器很快能够做出摆脱人为失误的癌症诊断。

"All of a sudden, we have the computing power to really do it in real time...We couldn't have done this, we didn't have the computing power to do this several years ago, but now it's all changed."

“我们突然之间就有了能够做出实时诊断的计算能力。我们本来没法实现这点，因为几年前我们不具备这种计算能力，但是现在一切都变了。”

Agus adds that the process could be done "for almost no cost in the developing world." He says that having a large amount of information about patients is important for a machine to effectively do its job in medicine.

Agus补充表示，这个过程在发展中国家几乎可以零成本完成。他说，拥有大量患者相关信息对于机器有效地完成其医学工作来说非常重要。

The University of Southern California researchers are now only studying breast cancer. But doctors predict artificial intelligence will one day make a difference in all forms of cancer.

南加州大学的研究人员目前只研究乳腺癌。但是医生们预测，有朝一日人工智能会改变各种癌症。

I'm Jonathan Evans.

乔纳森·埃文斯报道。

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology may soon be a useful tool for doctors. It may help them better understand and treat diseases like breast cancer in ways that were never before possible.

Rishi Rawat teaches AI at the University of Southern California's (USC) Clinical Science Center in Los Angeles. He is part of a team of scientists who are researching how AI and machine learning can more easily recognize cancerous growths in the breast.

Rawat provides information about cancer cells to a computer. He says this data helps the machine learn.

"…You can put the data into them and they will learn the patterns and the pattern recognition that's important to making decisions."

David Agus is another USC researcher. He believes that “machines are not going to take the place of doctors.”

“Computers will not treat patients, but they will help make certain decisions and look for things that the human brain can't recognize these patterns by itself.”

Once a confirmed cancerous growth is removed, doctors still have to treat the patient to reduce the risk of cancer returning. The form of treatment depends on the kind of cancer. Currently, researchers take a thin piece of tissue, put it on a small piece of glass and add color to better see the cells.

That process could take days or even longer. Scientists say artificial intelligence can do something better than just count cells. Through machine learning, it can recognize complex patterns, or structures, and learn how the cells are organized.

The hope is that machines will soon be able to make a quick identification of cancer that is free of human mistakes.

"All of a sudden, we have the computing power to really do it in real time...We couldn't have done this, we didn't have the computing power to do this several years ago, but now it's all changed."

Agus adds that the process could be done “for almost no cost in the developing world." He says that having a large amount of information about patients is important for a machine to effectively do its job in medicine.

The University of Southern California researchers are now only studying breast cancer. But doctors predict artificial intelligence will one day make a difference in all forms of cancer.

I’m Jonathan Evans.

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Words in This Story

pattern – n. the regular and repeated way in which something happens or is done