As a result of Julian Isla's quest to diagnose his son, DxGPT—a Microsoft-powered AI assistant that is quick, private, and revolutionizing the way rare diseases are identified—was created.

Following an agonizing year of trying to find answers for his infant son Sergio's unexplained seizures, Microsoft software specialist Julian Isla finally discovered that his child had Dravet syndrome, a severe and rare neurological disorder. Isla came up with the concept to use artificial intelligence to change the diagnosis of rare diseases because she was dissatisfied with the absence of resources and the high rate of incorrect diagnoses. Motivated by his family's experience, he co-founded Foundation 29 in 2017 with the intention of leveraging AI to deliver more accurate and timely medical insights. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's personal experience of raising a child with cerebral palsy further inspired Isla to become a leading advocate for using technology to transform healthcare for marginalized families.

Isla promptly sent Nadella an email after listening to his speech, relaying Sergio's experience and outlining his idea of how technology may improve the lives of people who have not yet been diagnosed. He was shocked when Nadella got back to him in five minutes and put him in touch with Microsoft's AI healthcare team.

The first notable achievement of the nonprofit was developing a clinical-grade diagnostic tool using basic AI algorithms. With DxGPT, a next-gen diagnostic assistant based on Microsoft's Azure platform and driven by sophisticated language models, they refined their invention through 2023.

Let's understand what exactly DxGPT is and how it works. DxGPT is a tool that uses the GPT-4o and o1 models, which have been trained on both public and private healthcare datasets, to assess symptoms and provide possible diagnoses in a matter of minutes. By not gathering personal data, it puts privacy first. To get an initial diagnostic summary, patients or caregivers can describe their symptoms. Doctors can then confirm the diagnosis with further tests. DxGPT, which is now accessible online, offers families dealing with complicated health situations crucial support by providing faster, more precise help.