AI如何看病？

最近热映的《我不是药神》让公众再次关注到“医疗”和“药品”这两个民生话题。更好的医学治疗，一直是人类积极追求的目标。

今天我们来讲解一个关于AI人工智能如何看病的短文，原文刊登在 The Wall Street Journal，标题为“The AI Doctor Will See You Now.”

Kimberly Bari had her firstseizurein 2010 at age 26 and since then has had hundreds. Some rendered her unconscious, others left her confused and terrified. By 2016, hersurgery- and drug-resistantcondition led her to try something fewer than 2,000 people in the world have attempted: implanting a computer into her brain.

Kimberly的病经常发作（seizure，表示疾病突发，源自seize，突然抓取）,6年来不停的手术和耐药性（drugresistant）让她做了个全球只有两千人尝试的实验：给大脑植入芯片。

Machine-learningalgorithms accomplish tasks by training on a set of data, rather than being programmed by humans. NeuroPace Inc.’s engineers pattern-match patients’ neural activity to a database of two million recordings from the brains of other patients. Armed with the knowledge of what worked before, the system instructs the implant to stimulate users’ brains tointerrupt a seizure at its onset.

这套神经模拟系统用到了AI（Artificial Intelligence, 人工智能）中的机器学习（machinelearning）的技术。机器学习不需要人为编程而直接从数据中学习信息。通过从一个拥有二百万条记录的数据库中匹配神经活动的特征，这套系统刺激患者脑部神经来中止病情的发作（interrupta seizure at its onset, onset:不良的事件的开始）。

As machines learn from at times millions of humans, doctors are gaining the ability to better identify disease and evenpredict it before it becomes catastrophic.

AI能从数以百万的患者数据中学习，提高了医生诊断疾病，甚至在恶化之前预测疾病的能力。

The KardiaMobile is a pocket-size electrocardiogram monitor, and the first iPhone accessory approved by theU.S. Food and Drug Administration. Now its maker, AliveCor—which also sells the KardiaBand EKG recorder for Apple Watch—is gathering the sort of data from its devices that could someday feed a machine-learning system that doctors could use tospot a disease.

KardiaMobile是一种小型心电图检测仪（electrocardiogram monitor, electrocardiogram心电图，简称EKG），被美国食品药监局（U.S. Food and Drug Administration，简称FDA）批准为第一个iPhone附件。其数据被收集用以以后能够提供给机器学习系统，帮助医生诊断病情（spot a decease）。我们的健康会通过我们的身体发出信号，而我们可以通过这些信号预防疾病。

..... Hypotension Prediction Index (HPI), for example, was recently approved by the FDA, and has already been used on thousands of patients in Europe. The U.S. rollout has been slow, doctors who have used it say, because it’s one of the first pieces of medical equipment to incorporate AI. The HPI uses machine learning, applied to a large body of previously gathered data, to give doctors a moment-to-moment probability that a patient’sblood pressure might drop in a life-threatening way.

...... Watching the system’s AI-powered prediction values“twitch”helps alert doctors to the possibility that something could be amiss with a patient, many minutes before conventional measures might, he said.

FDA最近批准的HPI被用到了欧洲数以千计的患者身上。这个系统的AI算法为医生提供了每一刻患者会发生致命性低血压的概率(blood pressure drop in a life-threatening way)。就像天气预报App一样，通过跟踪AI的预测数据，当一个预测值的“twitch”出现的时候，医生能得到警示（twitch在这里是指突然的移动。例句：I twitched when my mom opened the room door）。这种方法比传统方法快了好几分钟。

“Decision support” technology not only will tell doctors that a catastrophe in the operating room isimpending, but also will suggest a cause and even what to do about it......

Tech giants in theconsumer marketarewell aware thatAI in their wearable devices couldlead to new revenue. Hence Apple’s attempts to use the heart-rate sensor in the Apple Watch to harvest massive quantities of anonymous data for its heart study, in partnership with Stanford.

While Apple istight-lippedabout where this will lead, it’s clear the company could eventually seek FDA approval for apps that rely on the heart-rate sensor to deliver medical advice.

这种决策支持技术还可能用在手术中提醒医生可能发生的灾难（impendingcatastrophe）并且也会提出可能的原因并提供该如何处理的建议。

在消费者市场（consumermarket）里的科技巨头们很清楚（be wellawarethat）可穿戴设备中的AI是新的利润增长点（leadto new revenue）。苹果公司通过AppleWatch记录了海量的匿名心率数据用以和哈佛大学合伙进行心脏病研究。尽管苹果对发展方向闭口不言（betight-lippedaboutwherethiswilllead），最后应用可能提供的所有医学建议都要经过FDA审核。

Entering into an industry as visible andhighly regulatedas medical devices isn’t for thefaint of heart. Apple has occasionallyrun afoul of customersfor issues ranging from call-dropping antenna design to secret performance-limiting software. Would the company be prepared to handle results with potentially life-and-death impact on its users? Apple didn’t respond to requests for comment.

要踏入一个高度监管的（highlyregulated）行业不能是胆小鬼（faintofheart：指胆小的人。例句：Thefilm about a serial killer isnot for the faintof heart. ）苹果最近已经因为隐藏的功能限制软件和天线设计与用户起了冲突（runafoul of customers）。面对可能影响用户的生死的结果，苹果能否应付？

“Like automating any human labor, introducing AI means automating a portion of a highly trained professional’s job,” Dr. Mittendorff said. “And that professional will want to make sure that what you’re doing to automate their job adheresto the highest ethical standardbefore adopting it—so thestakes are high.”

这些AI技术自动化了一部分专业技术工作，需要遵守最高的道德标准（adhereto the highest ethical standards） 才能被应用，因此风险也很大（stakesarehigh，stake原意为木桩，引申为下的赌注,其动词形式相当于risk，例句：Hehas talent and ambition, and I'd stake my reputation on his success.）