AI and Facial Recognition May Be Able to Spot Stroke and other Diseases

Patients at Johns Hopkins Hospital who are suspected of having a stroke might get an unusual request from physicians: Can we film your face? The doctors’ goal is to identify stroke patients by facial characteristics instead of waiting for brain scans or blood tests, helping speed both treatment and recovery.

The Johns Hopkins team is training a computer algorithm to recognize changes in the patients’ features, such as the paralysis of certain facial muscles or unusual eye movements, that might indicate damage to the brain from a stroke as opposed to seizures, severe migraines or anxiety disorders.