The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Forget your GP, robots will 'soon be able to diagnose more accurately than almost any doctor' [parsa_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq1rJ9pSNcEwURYMTh2-V-meIJ02v23m6JBWZjDUILQig.
jp artificial intelligence Credit: Geoff Pugh for The Telegraph 7 March 2017 • 10:00pm Robots will soon be able to diagnose patients “more accurately and faster” than almost any doctor, says the man behind a controversial NHS scheme which will see chatbots employed to assess 111 calls.
 A private company with a string of health service contracts is to launch a national scheme which allows patients to receive a full diagnosis by smartphone – without ever having to see a GP.
 Babylon Health has just begun a pilot scheme which means patients in five boroughs of London are encouraged to consult a chatbot instead of a human being, when they contact the 111 non-emergency line.
 Under the system, patients key in their symptoms, with artificial intelligence used to assess the urgency of each case, and determine home.
 "We would not accurately forecast the weather without a computer - we need to be giving this support to our doctors"Dr Ali Parsa Now the company’s chief executive has revealed it is to launch a more sophisticated model which will allow any individual to receive a diagnosis by smartphone.
 Dr Ali Parsa, the company’s founder said the system would allow doctors to work in tandem with artificial intelligence – so that medics could focus on treating rather than diagnosing diseases.
 The entrepreneur said: “There are 300 million pieces of knowledge that we have collected.
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 And concerns have been raised that such schemes pave the way for the “privatisation” of the NHS, at a time when it is under unprecented strain.
 However, Dr Parsa said tests comparing speed, accuracy and safety of the artificial intelligence system showed the computer consistently outperforming the human.
 Tests comparing accuracy of triage forund that nurses results were accurate in 73.