Melissa Mulholland was 16 weeks pregnant with her second child when her doctor noticed something unusual in an ultrasound scan. It was a condition called posterior urethral valves, PUV, and it meant her son wouldn’t survive the womb without medical intervention. She was fortunate to have a doctor skilled in detecting the condition and intervening to address it, and the good news is that her son, Conor, is now 5 years old. 

But the experience left Mulholland thinking about the families who aren’t so lucky to have such expert health care. She wondered if technology could be a solution. She’s not an engineer, and doesn’t have a technical background, but she works at Microsoft, so she’s familiar with the latest technologies in her role working with the company’s cloud customers and partners. 

She asked a question that not a lot of people would ask: could artificial intelligence help?

The answer was yes. What happened next was a case study in the potential of machine learning and other forms of artificial intelligence to transform health care and other industries, particularly as Microsoft, Amazon, Google and others work to make the tools more accessible.

Melissa Mulholland tells us her family’s story on this episode of the GeekWire Health Tech Podcast.