Ten months of anxiety for a diagnosis changed the life of a Spanish father. His pain gave birth to a medical revolution thanks to artificial intelligence.
It all starts with an ordinary evening in the family bathroom. Little Sergio, three months, suddenly stops, the body shaken by spasms. For Julián Isla and his wife Lucía, it is panic, then the race against the clock. Hospital visits and specialist consultations are linked, with poor doctors in the face of the inexplicable. Over the months, anxiety becomes their daily life. But, from this despair, will hatch an idea capable of changing thousands of lives.
For ten long months, the Isla family saw the hell of medical wandering. Sergio’s crises are increasing – sometimes up to twenty in a single day – without any specialist can make a precise diagnosis. “We felt fear and great uncertainty. We spent time and money to consult specialists, in vain,” recalls Julián. The announcement of the diagnosis, Dravet syndrome, arrives too late to avoid certain sequelae. Behind pain, a feeling of injustice: why does technology, if present everywhere, seems to be absent when it comes to the health of her child?
Carried by this question, Julián, software engineer for Microsoft in Madrid, embarks on a personal mission. His goal: to avoid other families the ordeal he has experienced. The click occurs in 2017, when he listens to Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, sharing the story of his son with brain paralysis. Emu, Julián writes to Nadella, entrusting her with his dream of a quick diagnosis for all. The almost immediate answer opens the way: Julián is put in touch with teams specialized in artificial intelligence of the group.
He then co -bonded Foundation 29, dedicated to medical innovation thanks to AI. With a team of developers, it is working on a tool capable of analyzing thousands of symptoms and medical data, and quickly proposing diagnostic tracks. The idea takes shape: “Artificial intelligence is a facilitator”, explains Julián. “We have transformed our pain into a engine to help others.”
In 2023, after years of work, Julián and the 29 Foundation present DXGPT, a tool accessible for free online, which makes it possible to suggest in a few minutes diagnostics of rare diseases. Based on the latest advances in artificial intelligence, DXGPT has already been used by more than 500,000 people around the world. In Madrid, more than 6,000 doctors now have a suitable version, integrated into the public health system. “I want to provide a diagnosis to those who don’t have it, it is possible,” says Julián. Thanks to the power of AI, the medical odyssey that the Isla family has known more and more to the past for other parents.
Today, the DXGPT tool is accessible online, open to everyone, all over the world. What was yesterday an answer to the pain of a single father became a precious resource for anyone looking for a diagnosis.
