AI: Article: Researchers use AI to speed up endometriosis diagnoses in Canada

[Kim Locke]

I have a good news item about AI! This is a great application for it!

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/article/researchers-use-ai-to-speed-up-endometriosis-diagnoses-in-canada

[Jenna Kedy 0]

@Kim-Locke Thank you so much for sharing! As someone who’s navigated chronic illness and spent years learning how to explain symptoms in ways healthcare providers would actually hear, THIS is the kind of AI story that gives me hope. So many patients including myself and especially other women, chronically ill people, and young people are told “it’s probably stress” Meanwhile they’re missing school, work, sleep, relationships, and pieces of their life trying to survive pain that isn’t normal. I know what it feels like to spend appointment after appointment trying to prove your body is struggling. That exhaustion is real. So the idea of AI helping identify patterns earlier, validate symptoms, and get people to the right specialist faster? That feels powerful. THIS is what appropriate healthcare AI looks like to me as it’s supporting clinicians and empowering patients and replacing human care but strengthening it.

[Debra Turnbull]

@Kim-Locke @Jenna-Kedy-0

The AI-diagnostic space has been exploding in recent years because it is producing concrete results. Radiologists are benefitting from this.

Another area is drug discovery and protein folding science; genetics. Our children's hospital has a rare genetics detection program - in order to catch disease early - that uses AI-gene detection.

[MichelleWithers]

@Kim-Locke @Jenna-Kedy-0 @Debra-Turnbull I think this kind of AI is incredibly promising especially when it comes to helping identify endometriosis earlier and validating symptoms sooner. Earlier recognition could make a huge difference for so many people who spend years being dismissed or misdiagnosed. At the same time, I think it also highlights a bigger issue many of us already know too well: even once we know we have endometriosis, access to proper care is still incredibly difficult. Long wait times for specialists, surgery, pain management, pelvic physio, multidisciplinary care and even basic followup support continue to leave patients suffering for months or years after diagnosis.

While I’m hopeful about AI helping shorten the path to being heard... we also need healthcare systems that can actually support patients once they finally get answers. Earlier diagnosis without accessible treatment and timely care still leaves many people stuck in survival mode.

[Debra Turnbull]

@MichelleWithers

True.

Diagnostic AI will not fix the healthcare system. It is, after all, only a tool. A tool to assist clinicians get to an answer... quicker. This translates to less time the patient has to wait as a consequence of mis-diagnosis.

It will not solve long wait times. It will not solve clinician burnout (many are heading for the exits labelled "retirement"). However, if it a tool can alleviate some of a clinician's cognitive load, then I'm all for it. We - as patients / caregivers - have an active role in protecting out clinicians... else, we will lose them altogether.

I recently read an article arguing that Canada does not have a healthcare system. It has a jumbled mess of care delivery services; connected by Band-Aids... hmmm...