The diagnostic assistant “Aida” will appear in all adult clinics in Moscow by the end of September.

The Aida diagnostic assistant will be available in all adult clinics in Moscow by the end of September. It will help internists and general practitioners in making a final diagnosis based on the patient’s electronic medical record data for the last two years. The mayor’s office emphasizes that the final decision will still be up to the specialist. Experts interviewed by Kommersant also focus on this: they generally support the introduction of an AI assistant, but emphasize the role of the doctor, not only professional, but also legal.

By the end of September, the Moscow City Hall will equip all clinics with an AI solution to help therapists and general practitioners make a diagnosis. This project, which has been implemented since 2019, is already being used in the capital’s medical organizations in the radiation diagnostics segment. Now, the developers assure, the solution for making a diagnosis is ready for implementation in widespread clinical practice.

The new module of the medical decision support system analyzes the patient’s electronic medical record data for the last two years and offers a final diagnosis option. The model was developed as part of cooperation between experts from the Moscow government and Sberbank and highly qualified doctors, said the capital’s vice-mayor for social development Anastasia Rakova. “We see huge potential in using artificial intelligence technologies to develop the industry. Already today, AI has been introduced into the routine practice of physicians in urban medical institutions. We are going further and have launched a new module of the medical decision support system in 24 clinics,” said the deputy mayor.

The press service of the mayor’s office explained that the new module of the system is connected in the case when, while filling out an examination protocol in the unified medical information and analytical system (EMIAS), the therapist decides to give the patient a final diagnosis. At this moment, the digital assistant simultaneously analyzes the patient’s complaints and medical history from the current protocol, as well as text data from his electronic medical record and forms a diagnosis. If it differs from the one set by the doctor, the system signals this with a notification. The purpose of the service is not to replace a doctor, but to insure him if there is a suspicion of one of the 95 serious diseases that require dispensary observation, Ms. Rakova emphasized. In this case, the final decision is always made by the physician.

The assistant was trained on records of 30 million patient visits over two years, Sberbank said. During an experiment involving 38 doctors, the service demonstrated an accuracy of more than 87% in determining diagnoses. According to statistics, an AI assistant helps a doctor at an appointment to make a final diagnosis in 40% of cases. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported that since October 2020, AI has helped therapists make more than 10 million diagnoses. At the end of 2022, President Vladimir Putin recommended that other regions follow the capital in terms of digitalization of the healthcare sector.

General Director of the Doctis group of companies Sergei Lezhnin recalled that the introduction of artificial intelligence into medical systems has been happening for a long time. “In particular, Doctis in 2022 launched a system of robotic medical assistants that collect data on the health status of patients from wearable gadgets – holters, glucometers, tonometers – and signal the doctor about any negative change in the patient’s condition,” continues Mr. Lezhnin. “For all For our products, we first conduct clinical studies, obtain confirmation of the effectiveness of the methodology, and only then implement them into practice.” In his opinion, it is important to understand that any AI-based system is of an auxiliary nature, that is, it should facilitate and automate the work of a doctor, reduce the distance between him and the patient, which is especially important for the regions. However, the expert also sees “a certain risk”: “When using even tested and certified systems, the final decision must be made by the doctor. With the right positioning and any high-tech features, yes, this is a very cutting-edge and important story for healthcare.”

“Anything that makes the work of doctors easier—reminders and additional analytics that allow them to make the right decision faster—is the future,” agrees Alexander Andreev, CEO of the medical technology company Doctor Nearby. “We need to develop solutions that will simplify the routine work of a doctor with a patient.” In his opinion, the main obstacle to further implementation may be the fragmentation of medical information systems and protocols: “Each region has its own data management centers. It would be nice to have a single data management center to increase the pace of digitalization of medicine.”

The founder and CEO of the VvCube consulting group, Vadim Tkachenko, believes that in general there are no obstacles to the implementation of the project not only in Moscow, but also in Russia, citing the order of the Ministry of Health, in accordance with which medical services are provided within the framework of digital medicine. The main condition is to comply with the rules for the transfer of personal data, sign all consents and documents on medical interventions. “But with resources, of course, it’s more difficult,” continues Mr. Tkachenko. “If in Moscow there is EMIAS and within the framework of this system everything works well and competently, then the common Uniform State Health Information System (Unified State Information System in the field of healthcare) in a number of regions in Russia fails. But in general, it can be developed on the basis and experience of EMIAS; it is quite viable for such experiments.” Vadim Tkachenko adds that legal issues will always remain one of the main ones in medicine: who is responsible for treatment, how successful it is, and this is closely related to the quality of medical services. “And it depends not only on whether the doctor has an assistant, but on the professionalism of the doctor who makes the decision. The assistant is just a system that should guide the doctor and give him options if there are any doubts,” concludes Mr. Tkachenko.

Natalia Kostarnova