An App for the Medical Community

When in doubt, let a computer do it. Or even just a phone.

For years doctors have struggled to correctly predict which women at risk of suffering preterm labor will actually have a premature baby. Despite the best efforts of activists, the number of women going into premature labor and having babies prematurely is actually increasing, one of the few places where modern medicine might be having a negative effect. This is especially true in America, where the incidence of prematurity has increased rapidly over the last twenty years.

Doctors are at a loss to explain why this is happening, and poor diagnoses of women at risk of premature labor continue to be extremely common. But a new app, developed in Britain, hopes to change that. Using an algorithm, the app has doctors ask women a series of questions, then provides an answer regarding the woman’s risk profile.

Algorithms have a good history of furthering medical science, including uses such as:

• Mapping the paths of communicable diseases
• Helping predict which strains of the flu will hit which areas in any given year
• Analyzing data to determine the rate at which medical errors and other problems occur in healthcare settings

The app is not yet in everyday use, in part because clinicians are hesitate to trust the numbers over their own judgment. But two trials have demonstrated that the app is more effective at making these diagnoses than most doctors.

If your child was born prematurely due to the failure of medical professionals to properly diagnose you, you know how useful an app such as this would have been. Please contact a qualified attorney who can help you pressure doctors and hospitals to start using these valuable services. It is only when patients make these types of expectations clear that things will actually change.