New AI medical program can spot rare diseases by looking at your face

Study Finds: '“The goal is to detect such diseases at an early stage and initiate appropriate therapy as soon as possible,” says Prof. Dr. Peter Krawitz from the Institute for Genomic Statistics and Bioinformatics (IGSB) at the University Hospital Bonn in a university release.

The vast majority of rare diseases are genetic. Usually caused by hereditary mutations, each one of these rare genetic conditions usually impair the body in a variety of different ways. Importantly, though, most of these rare genetic diseases also result in specific facial features. For instance, the base of a person’s nose or cheeks may have a different shape if they carry a genetic disorder. Such facial changes, however, vary from disease to disease.'