Considering I know someone, personally, who also made a scientific advancement at a young age, yes, it is possible.

They taught themselves python, then how to inference and train machine learning models, then used image recognition models to detect their sister's illness, which had visual signs.

They had to get help from someone with a phd to test this on a larger scale, cuz resources, but I absolutely believe a middle/high schooler could do it.

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/del-norte-high-school-seniors-invention-could-save-thousands-of-lives/3159354/

It's not that phd's are incapable of doing it, it's simply that they never bothered taking a crack at this problem, using this method.