Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Google Banks on New AI Model to Detect Breast Cancer Early

Read MoreHide Full Article

Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) is making every effort to revolutionize the healthcare industry on the back of its innovative technologies.

We note that the company’s search division, Google, has recently come up with an advanced system based on AI that can efficiently detect and diagnose breast cancer early. Notably, breast cancer is the most common and deadly form of the disease worldwide.

Google acquired company DeepMind has been conducting research on this particular innovation in collaboration with Cancer Research UK Imperial Centre, Northwestern University and Royal Surrey County Hospital.

The latest AI model has shown it is capable of detecting breast cancer at early stages in mammogram screenings that even radiologists fail to identify.

Moreover, the model reflects the company’s deepening focus toward transformation of breast cancer screening patterns and treatment methods.

Importance & Scope for New Model

We believe the new AI system is likely to bring a major breakthrough in the field of radiology.

In a dataset of de-identified mammograms from over 25,000 women in the U.K. and over 3,000 women in the United States, the model was capable enough to result in 5.7% and 1.2% reduction of false positives in the United States and the U.K, respectively.

Further, it resulted in a 9.4% and 2.7% percent reduction in false negatives in the United States and the U.K., respectively.

Notably, the traditional method of breast cancer detection via mammogram and usage of low-energy X-rays are failing to diagnose the disease early, which is crucial in this case.

Consequently, the model, which has been successful in early detection, holds immense potential and has scope for future application in today’s world as rates of breast cancer occurrence are increasing at an alarming rate.

 

Healthcare Attracting Tech Behemoths

The growth prospects in the multi-trillion-dollar healthcare industry are immense. Consequently, the industry has been attracting tech behemoths such as Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) , Apple (AAPL - Free Report) , Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) and many others apart from Alphabet to foray in it.

Amazon is constantly trying to disrupt this particular space driven by focus on revolutionizing the healthcare sector. The e-commerce giant is leaving no stone unturned to replace the time-consuming traditional healthcare methods with faster and technically efficient processes.

Meanwhile, Apple has undoubtedly become a frontrunner in this field primarily owing to Watch Series, HealthKit and Health app, which help users in monitoring their health.

Microsoft is also strengthening presence in this industry on the back of well performing Azure, which is witnessing increasing adoption in order to support healthcare workloads.

Consequently, growing initiatives by the abovementioned companies are intensifying competition in the healthcare space.

Nevertheless, growing healthcare initiatives backed by strong inflow of resources via funding rounds are likely to aid Alphabet in its health related projects. Moreover, its strengthening endeavors toward the advancement of cancer treatments are noteworthy.

Currently, Alphabet carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days

Just released: Experts distill 7 elite stocks from the current list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys. They deem these tickers “Most Likely for Early Price Pops.”

Since 1988, the full list has beaten the market more than 2X over with an average gain of +24.6% per year. So be sure to give these hand-picked 7 your immediate attention.

See 7 handpicked stocks now >>

Published in