“Artificial Diagnosis”: a project spotted by Inria Startup Studio

Hack1Robo, an event combining art, artificial intelligence, robotics, and cognitive science, conceived and organized by several members of IMN: Xavier Hinaut, Chloé Mercier, Achille Gillig, Yannis Bendi-Ouis, and Lucie Fontaine.

Among the projects presented, “Diagnotic Artificiel” stood out from the crowd and was awarded the Inria Startup Studio prize.

At the helm of this successfully executed project were Achille Gillig (PhD student at IMN) and Jonathan Legrand (Inria), with a team composed of Mélina Scopin (Sorbonne), Bernard Chaciński (Master DIIS), Sophie Hombourger, and Gabriel Soria.

The project

Identifying reasons for making a decision: this is the very principle of diagnosis in medicine… but also in machine learning!

The complexity of the factors contributing to physical and psychological disorders far exceeds our human capabilities. Each individual is unique, so much so that certain unexpected traits can alter the expression of pathologies. Could machine learning have a role to play in assisting with diagnosis?

Objectives

This project involves creating a system that provides clinicians with real-time diagnostic support information.

Using existing datasets, we will characterize the symptoms that appear in clinical interviews in order to return 1) probabilities of correspondence with different pathologies, and 2) additional information (questions or tests) that will increase the degree of certainty as quickly as possible. The project will involve natural language processing and Bayesian statistics, and will be implemented in Python.

This project will also be an opportunity to open the debate on the place of artificial intelligence systems in medicine, particularly in two key areas: ethics and consequences for the clinician/patient relationship.

About the offer

The Inria Startup Studio is a program aimed primarily at young PhD graduates. Among other things, it offers a salary for up to two project co-leaders, individualized support, and management courses.

The prize awarded by Inria Startup Studio aims to recognize the industrial potential of a project in order to bring it to fruition. Achille Gillig is currently taking the time to reflect on the direction he wants to take in his professional career and to complete his PhD.

Contacts

Achille Gillig – achille.gillig@u-bordeaux.fr
Jonathan Legrand – jonathan.a.legrand@inria.fr