A groundbreaking system that would use artificial intelligence to diagnose several diseases from a single blood test may not be far off.
The project, a collaboration between Microsoft and Seattle-based Adaptive Biotechnologies, could start diagnosing conditions “within a small number of years,” said Peter Lee, corporate vice president of Microsoft Healthcare, speaking at a conference for healthcare developers at Microsoft headquarters here Tuesday.
Lee’s optimism has come along way since he first heard the idea.
“This sounds a lot like science fiction. And in fact, when the idea was first presented to me by the people at Adaptive Biotechnologies, I was also somewhat skeptical about this, despite the fact that that I’m a big fan of Star Trek,” he said in a reference to the Tricorder, a handheld diagnostic device made famous by the Star Trek franchise.
