Can AI beat a doctor? We put thorny questions to renowned specialists and a chatbot... you'll never guess who won
They might be questions you'd normally ask your GP. But increasingly, it seems, we're now happy to put them to online robots.
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Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Diet that sheds weight fast by eating MORE: This easy plan was made to help cancer patients - then doctors realised its amazing benefits. JANE ALEXANDER tried it and couldn't believe how much she lost...
At the age of 65, I have reached crunch point. I'm sick to the back teeth of weird diets and I'm seriously fed up with feeling hungry. I'm also really hacked off at still being fat. It's not just how I look – my GP has told me I really need to lose my stores of visceral fat (the pernicious fat around the organs in the abdomen that is so bad for our health).
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
How Canada became the centre of a measles outbreak in North America
Morgan Birch was puzzled when her four-month-old daughter, Kimie, suddenly fell ill with a fever and first, the Alberta mother assumed it was a common side effect of immunisations - or perhaps a case of chicken pox. Ms Birch then consulted her 78-year-old grandmother, who recognised Kimie's illness immediately."That's measles," her grandmother said. Ms Birch was stunned, as she thought the disease had been eradicated.A lab test later confirmed her grandmother's hypothesis: Kimie had measles, likely contracted after a routine visit to the hospital in the Edmonton area a few weeks is one of more than 3,800 in Canada who have been infected with measles in 2025, most of them children and infants. That figure is nearly three times higher than the number of confirmed US cases, despite Canada's far smaller Canada is the only western country listed among the top 10 with measles outbreaks, according to CDC data, ranking at number eight. Alberta, the province at the epicentre of the current outbreak, has the highest per capita measles spread rate in North America. The data raises questions on why the virus is spreading more rapidly in Canada than in the US, and whether Canadian health authorities are doing enough to contain the US, the rise of measles has been partly linked to vaccine-hesitant public figures, like Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr - although he has since endorsed the measles vaccine as Canada does not have a prominent RFK Jr-like figure in public health, noted Maxwell Smith, a postdoctoral fellow in public health at Western University in southern Ontario."There are other things that need to be interrogated here I think," Dr Smith said. "Looking at the Canadian context adds another layer of complexity to this."Measles overall is on the rise in North America, Europe and the UK. Cases in the US reached a 33-year high this year, while England reported nearly 3,000 confirmed infections in 2024, its highest count since 2025 figures have surpassed both. The country has not seen this many measles cases since the illness was declared eliminated in 1998. Before this year, the last peak was in 2011, when about 750 cases were MMR vaccine is the most effective way to fight off measles, a highly contagious and dangerous virus, which can lead to pneumonia, brain swelling and death. The jabs are 97% effective and also immunise against mumps and rubella. How measles spread in Canada The hardest-hit provinces have been Ontario and Alberta, followed by Ontario, health authorities say the outbreak began in late 2024, when an individual contracted measles at a large Mennonite gathering in New Brunswick and then returned are a Christian group with roots in 16th-Century Germany and Holland, who have since settled in other parts of the world, including Canada, Mexico and the live modern lifestyles, while conservative groups lead simpler lives, limiting the use of technology and relying on modern medicine only when necessary. In Ontario, the illness primarily spread among Low German-speaking Mennonite communities in the province's southwest, where vaccination rates have historically been lower due to some members' religious or cultural beliefs against all those infected were unvaccinated, according to data from Public Health Friesen, a healthcare worker at a mobile clinic serving the Mennonite population near Aylmer, Ontario, said she first became aware of the outbreak in February, when a woman and her five-year-old child came in with what appeared to be an ear infection. It later turned out to be a symptom of measles."This is the first time I've ever seen measles within our community," Ms Friesen told the spread rapidly from that point, reaching a peak of more than 200 a week across Ontario by late new confirmed cases have since dropped sharply in Ontario, Alberta has emerged as the next hotspot. There, the spread happened so quickly that health officials were unable to pinpoint exactly how or where the outbreak began, said Dr Vivien Suttorp, the medical officer of health in southern Alberta, where cases are the too, said she had not seen an outbreak this bad in her 18 years working in public Friesen noted that Canada has a higher concentration of conservative Low German-speaking Mennonites than the US, which may be a factor behind the higher number of Mennonites are not a monolith, she said, and many have embraced vaccinations. What's changed is the rapid spread of anti-vaccine misinformation both in her community and beyond after the Covid-19 pandemic."There's hearsay that immunisations are bad for you," Ms Friesen said, or are "dangerous".This is amplified by a general distrust in the healthcare system, which she said has historically ostracised members of her community."We are sometimes put down or looked down upon because of our background," she said, adding that she herself has experienced discrimination in hospitals based on assumptions about her beliefs. Vaccine hesitancy on the rise Experts say it's tough to pinpoint why measles have spread wider in Canada than in the US, but many agree that cases in both countries are likely underreported."The numbers that we have in Alberta are just the tip of the iceberg," said Dr there is one big reason driving the outbreak: low vaccination rates, said Janna Shapiro, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto's Centre for Vaccine Preventable Shapiro said there is "an element of chance" at play, where a virus is introduced to a community by accident and spreads among those who are unprotected."The only thing that is going to stop an outbreak is getting those vaccination rates up," she said. "If the public is not willing to get vaccinated, then it will continue until the virus can't find anymore receptible hosts."In general, studies show that vaccine hesitancy has risen in Canada since the pandemic, and the data reflects that. In southern Alberta, for example, the number of MMR vaccines administered has dropped by nearly half from 2019 to 2024, according to provincial vaccine mandates were fiercely opposed by some during the pandemic, prompting the so-called "Freedom Convoy" protest in Ottawa where truckers gridlocked the city for two weeks in 2021. That opposition has since expanded to other vaccines, said Dr disruptions also left some children behind on routine immunisations. With measles having been largely eliminated, families likely did not prioritise getting their kids' vaccinations up to date, Dr Shapiro is not the case for Ms Birch, who began routine immunisations for her baby Kimie as soon as she was eligible. But Kimie was still too young for the measles vaccine, which is typically given at 12 months in Suttorp said Alberta has since lowered that age cap in response to the recent outbreak, and there has been an uptick in people taking the units across the country have also tried to encourage people to get vaccinated through public bulletins and radio advertisements. But the response is notably more muted than that during the Covid-19 pandemic, health officials has since slowly recovered, Ms Birch said, though she continues to be monitored for potential long-term effects of the Alberta mother said she was saddened and horrified when she learned her daughter had measles, but also "frustrated and annoyed" at those choosing not to vaccinate their called on people to heed public health guidelines and "protect the ones that can't protect themselves"."My four-month-old shouldn't have gotten measles in 2025," Ms Birch said.
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
New AI tool could speed up skin cancer diagnoses in remote parts of world
A researcher at a Scottish university has developed AI tools that could give people in remote areas of the world access to fast and potentially life-saving skin cancer diagnoses. Tess Watt, the PhD student at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh who led the project to develop the technology, said it is intended to enable early detection of skin conditions anywhere in the world, and without the need for direct access to dermatologists. The technology also works without internet access. The system involves a patient taking a photograph of their skin complaint using a small camera attached to a Raspberry Pi device – a cheap, energy-efficient handheld computer that is capable of storing vast amounts of information. The photograph is analysed in real-time using the latest state-of-the-art image classification, comparing it to an enormous dataset of thousands of images stored on the device to reach a diagnosis. The findings are then shared with a local GP service to begin a suitable treatment plan. The project is understood to be the first of its kind to combine AI medical diagnosis with the aim of serving remote communities. Ms Watt explained: ' Healthcare from home is a really important topic at the moment, especially as GP wait times continue to grow. 'If we can empower people to monitor skin conditions from their own homes using AI, we can dramatically reduce delays in diagnosis.' A prototype of the device has already been demonstrated at Heriot-Watt's advanced health and care technologies suite. The research team said the tool is up to 85% accurate in its diagnostic capabilities, but they hope to increase this further by gaining access to more skin lesion datasets, aided by advanced machine tools. Ms Watt is also in talks with NHS Scotland to begin the ethical approval process for testing the technology in real-world clinical settings. 'Hopefully in the next year or two, we'll have a pilot project under way,' she said, noting medical technology often takes years to move from prototype to implementation. She added: 'By the time I finish my PhD, three years from now, I'd love to see something well into the pipeline that's on its way to real-world use.' The university said the long-term vision is to roll the system out first across remote regions of Scotland, before expanding to global areas with limited access to dermatological care. It added the technology could also offer vital support to patients who are infirm or unable to travel, allowing loved ones to assist with capturing and submitting diagnostic images to GPs. Ms Watt's academic supervisor, Dr Christos Chrysoulas, said: 'E-health devices must be engineered to operate independently of external connectivity to ensure continuity of patient service and safety. 'In the event of a network or cloud service failure, such devices must fail safely and maintain all essential clinical operations without functional degradation. 'While auxiliary or non-critical features may become temporarily unavailable, the core diagnostic and even therapeutic capabilities must remain fully operational, in compliance of course with safety and regulatory requirements. 'Ensuring this level of resilience in affordable, low-cost medical devices is the essence of our research, particularly for deployment in resource-limited settings and areas with limited or no connectivity, where uninterrupted patient care must still be guaranteed.' UK Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle commented on the research, saying: 'Low-cost technology which could help detect skin cancer early and at home, without even the need for internet access, is an incredible example of AI's potential to break down barriers in healthcare and save lives. 'Promising, first of its kind research like this also demonstrates the crucial role UK innovators can play in improving the lives of people of all backgrounds, wherever they live, and makes clear the value of government investing in research to deliver our plan for change.'
