Microsoft says AI can diagnose tough medical cases better than physicians

Fast Company

4 days ago

The digital health market is growing, and according to Microsoft, its new AI Diagnostic Orchestrator (MAI-DxO) is among the latest in generative, artificial intelligence to support accurate, complex medical diagnoses—and it's doing it better than human doctors.
According to the tech company, the new system acts as a 'virtual panel of diverse physicians' that bridge the gap between needing multiple real-life general physicians and specialists in the search to be diagnosed. They call it 'medical superintelligence.'
In a report published on Monday, Microsoft claims the generative AI tool is around four times more accurate than a human physician when it comes to diagnosing complex issues—and that it does so at a lower cost.
'Increasingly, people are turning to digital tools for medical advice and support. Across Microsoft's AI consumer products like Bing and Copilot, we see over 50 million health-related sessions every day,' the report states. 'From a first-time knee-pain query to a late-night search for an urgent-care clinic, search engines and AI companions are quickly becoming the new front line in healthcare.'
How does it work?
To avoid 'one-shot answers' Microsoft says it focused on teaching the new system to make a 'sequential diagnosis,' meaning the ability to address multiple, varying factors before providing a clear treatment plan.
To do so, MAI-DxO was paired with OpenAI's 03 reasoning model for its ability to understand complex topics. Essentially this pairing creates an AI-generated panel of doctors that asks questions, orders medical testing, and provides a diagnosis with follow-up questions as needed.
To test its efficiency in comparison to physicians, Microsoft applied MAI-DxO to 304 case records from the New England Journal of Medicine, and compared the system's diagnostic results to those of 21 human physicians from the U.S. and the U.K.
Microsoft says that with MAI-DxO 85.5% of cases were solved accurately. Whereas, the real-life physicians solved the cases with a mean accuracy of 20%. Notably, the physicians were unable to access books, colleagues, or other AI tools during the study—all tools doctors would typically use in their practice.
Additionally, Microsoft claims the tool lowers healthcare waste such as unnecessary care and overpayment of services. Essentially, speedlining the process that has left 15 million Americans in medical debt this past year.
The future of AI-driven healthcare
Although Microsoft presents its new tool on the cutting edge, it says additional testing is needed and limitations still exist.
The AI orchestrator, while claimed to be great with complex health situations, needs work on the simple-healthcare front. Additionally, MAI-DxO is not currently approved for clinical trials, and will need to be before it can be used to diagnose real-life, medical situations.
'While AI is becoming a powerful tool in healthcare, our team of practicing clinicians believes AI represents a complement to doctors and other health professionals,' Microsoft says. 'While this technology is advancing rapidly, their clinical roles are much broader than simply making a diagnosis. They need to navigate ambiguity and build trust with patients and their families in a way that AI isn't set up to do.'