How Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella helped company's software developer to turn his son's medical battle into a free AI-based healthcare tool

Microsoft software developer Julian Isla spent a distressful year seeking answers for his infant son Sergio's unexplained seizures before finally discovering he had Dravet syndrome , a rare and severe neurological disorder. Frustrated by repeated misdiagnoses and inadequate medical resources, Isla envisioned using artificial intelligence to revolutionise rare disease diagnosis . Motivated by his family's ordeal, he co-founded Foundation 29 in 2017 to harness AI for faster, more accurate medical insights. Further inspired by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella ’s personal story of raising a child with cerebral palsy, Isla became a leading advocate for using technology to transform healthcare for families in need.

After hearing Nadella’s speech, Isla quickly emailed him, sharing Sergio’s story and presenting his vision of how technology could transform the lives of undiagnosed patients. To his surprise, Nadella responded within five minutes and connected him with Microsoft’s AI healthcare team.

The nonprofit’s first milestone was developing a clinical-grade diagnostic tool using basic AI algorithms. By 2023, they elevated their innovation with DxGPT , a next-generation diagnostic assistant powered by advanced language models and hosted on Microsoft’s Azure platform .

What is DxGPT and how it works

DxGPT uses the GPT-4o and o1 models, trained on a combination of public medical resources and proprietary datasets from healthcare partners, to quickly analyse symptoms and suggest possible diagnoses within minutes. Designed with privacy in mind, the tool does not collect or store personal data and requires no user identifiers.

Patients or caregivers can simply input a description of symptoms and receive an initial diagnostic summary, which doctors can later validate with tests and clinical expertise.

Now freely accessible online, DxGPT offers a vital starting point for families facing complex health challenges, delivering faster, more accurate support when it’s needed most.