Software startup Enlitic says a new alliance with Australian radiology provider Capitol Health will allow its machine learning technology to transform medical diagnostics.

Enlitic’s tools are used to map the entire human body and its afflictions spanning a wide range of ailments, from lung cancer to bone fractures.

Founded by Melbourne serial entrepreneur Jeremy Howard, Enlitic has created computer learning systems that can take millions of scans, tests and medical records and learn from them to help doctors rapidly diagnose problems.

“This is the beginning of a transformation of global health services,” says Jeremy.       

Radiologists view hundreds of X-rays and other medical images every week looking for the unusual. Sometimes they’re looking for something they’ve never actually seen before. Sometimes they’re looking at something that’s just four pixels in a two-million-pixel image.

“The new system will learn from a million scans held by Capitol.

“And it will keep learning from every ultrasound, CT, MRI, PET, and X-ray we perform,” says Capitol Managing Director John Conidi.

“Within a year this system will be implemented across our clinics. Our radiologists will be able to work faster, provide more accurate results and save more lives. Many unnecessary, expensive and dangerous procedures will be avoided,” he says.

“This system will transform Western healthcare,” says Jeremy Howard. “The more data and computing time it gets, the more it learns and the more accurate it becomes. Eventually it will handle lab tests, patient histories, and genomic information. It will take much of the guess work out of medicine.

“In developing countries our impact will be even more profound. Most medical images are never seen by a doctor. Our system will enable a remote health worker to do an ultrascan and get a result in minutes.