# Microsoft Says Its Step-by-Step AI Diagnostic Tool Was More Than Twice as Accurate as General Physicians on Hard Cases

A study in the journal Science says the tool solved over 300 unusual cases better than doctors working with textbooks and the internet. A trial in Boston emergency-room triage comes next.

- Section: [Economy](https://rightnewsrightnow.com/economy/)
- Published: 2026-10-23
- By: RightNewsRightNow Staff
- Canonical page: https://rightnewsrightnow.com/articles/microsoft-ai-diagnostic-orchestrator-twice-as-accurate-general-physicians-science-study/

Microsoft researchers say a new AI tool that works through a diagnosis the way a doctor does was more than twice as accurate as general physicians at solving complex medical cases.

The study. The research was published Thursday in the journal Science. Microsoft says the model uses an "orchestrator" that runs a simulated panel of clinical experts. The panel decides which questions to ask a patient, which exams to run and which tests to order. Most existing models, by contrast, take everything at once, including symptoms, lab results and imaging, and produce a diagnosis in one pass.

How it works. The tool first picks what to ask about the patient's history and what matters in the physical exam. It then decides which tests to order, weighs the results, orders more if needed, and keeps updating its working hypotheses and plan.

The result. Researchers gave the model more than 300 highly unusual and confusing cases. They found that the version using the orchestrator was over twice as accurate at working up the patient and reaching the diagnosis as general physicians using textbooks and the internet. It also did better on scenarios drawn from a large database of emergency-room admissions, and the work-ups it designed cost less than those chosen by human doctors.

Why the test is different. Dr. Dominic King, corporate vice president of the health unit at Microsoft AI, said older evaluations usually rely on multiple-choice questions, and AI "has become very good at getting a 100% pass rate on those." He added, "But of course, that's not real-world. No patient ever came to see me with a nice summary." Harsha Nori, head of AI at Microsoft AI Health, said the team is measuring how "judiciously and carefully" the system works up a case, not only whether it is right.

What comes next. Microsoft plans a collaboration with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston to test whether the tool can triage patients in emergency-department waiting rooms.

Note for readers: these are results from the developer's own study, reported by Fox Business with Reuters. The tool is not described as being in clinical use, and we have not read the paper.

## Source

Original reporting: [Fox Business](https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/microsoft-says-its-ai-tool-outperforms-generalist-doctors-complex-diagnoses)