Artificial intelligence is making waves across the medical field, with new studies showing promise in predicting eye treatment complications, analyzing heart MRIs, and even designing RNA-based drugs.While specialized healthcare AI models demonstrate potential, research also cautions against relying on general-purpose AI chatbots for clinical decision-making, highlighting the need for tailored solutions in critical medical applications.AI Model Shows Promise in Predicting Eye Treatment ComplicationsA new study suggested AI could help predict complications from treatments for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of vision loss affecting millions of Americans. Researchers from Emory University and Cleveland Clinic developed a machine-learning model that analyzes eye scans to identify patients at risk of inflammatory responses to common AMD treatments.The study, published in the journal Heliyon, focused on neovascular AMD (nAMD), a severe form of the disease typically treated with anti-VEGF drugs, according to a press release. While effective, these treatments can cause severe eye inflammation in some patients. The AI model, which analyzed optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans, demonstrated accuracy rates of up to 81% in identifying patients likely to develop this complication.“Our study provides valuable data for clinicians to make better treatment decisions, potentially reducing the dosage or combining these agents with anti-inflammatory drugs to prevent severe complications,” Anant Madabhushi, executive director of Emory AI.Health and principal investigator of the study, said in the release.The research team analyzed images from 67 eyes in a retrospective clinical trial. While the results were promising, more extensive prospective studies will be necessary to validate the model’s effectiveness in clinical settings. The researchers aim to integrate their algorithms into future clinical trials to test real-time identification of at-risk patients, per the release.Study Finds General AI Chatbots Unsuitable for Clinical Decision-MakingHealthcare AI firm Atropos’ study revealed popular chatbots like ChatGPT falter in clinical decision-making, underscoring the need for specialized AI in critical medical applications.According to the company’s paper, published on the open-access platform Arxiv, Atropos tested five large language models — including general-purpose models, a healthcare-specific model, and Atropos’ own ChatRWD beta — on 50 healthcare questions

PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- S32, a leading venture capital firm founded by Bill Maris after building Google Ventures, today proudly announced the appointment of Dr. Andy Conrad, a leader in the application of technology and advanced data science, as General Partner. Dr. Conrad previously held numerous senior roles at Google, having most recently founded and served as the CEO and Executive Chairman of Verily Life Sciences (previously "Google Life Sciences"). He has held positions at GV ("Google Ventures") and X ("GoogleX"), and, during his tenure, worked with DeepMind, Google Cloud, Google AI and other technical and business teams across the Alphabet ecosystem