CHICAGO, Ill. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – Heart failure is a common, costly condition affecting over six million U.S. adults – that’s about one in 250 people. When a patient reaches advanced heart failure, medications no longer work; that’s why it’s vital to catch the problem early. And now, AI is giving doctors advanced notice –helping them find the most critical patients.
Finding the best route, googling the answer, facial recognition on our phones – these are just a few examples of how we use augmented intelligence every single day and now, AI is fast becoming the future of health care.
Up to 25 percent of all heart patients have advanced heart failure. Dr. Jane Wilcox, MD, Chief of Heart Failure at Northwestern Medicine’s Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute, is part of a team at the hospital that’s using AI to detect patients at risk.
“Advanced heart failure can be sort of tricky or nuanced to identify. So, we’ve created algorithms, using AI, using machine learning to try to find patients, and we have found patients successfully,” Dr. Wilcox tells Ivanhoe.
Data science teams are using tens of thousands of data points from their data warehouse, which include clinical data and imaging.
Dr. Wilcox explains, “If we can catch patients who are less sick, potentially, they could be a candidate for a clinical trial.
The team also used AI to help pinpoint two patients who needed LVADs – two people who may have not been helped until it was too late.
“It doesn’t let people fall through the cracks,” Dr. Wilcox emphasizes.
AI is transforming the way doctors take care of patients, just like it’s transformed our daily lives.
Other ways augmented intelligence is changing – healthcare, virtual visits, diagnosis and predicting outcomes, medical image interpretations, and training. A study from Medtronic found that 72 percent of healthcare executives trust AI to help in patient care.
Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Roque Correa, Videographer & Editor.
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Source:
MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS
RESEARCH SUMMARY
TOPIC: AI: SAVING HEARTS AND TRANSFORMING HEALTHCARE
REPORT: MB #5102
BACKGROUND: Artificial intelligence is helping doctors worldwide improve treatments for patients with cardiovascular issues such as strokes, heart attacks and heart failure. AI is used to program computers to process and respond to data quickly and consistently for better treatment outcomes. For example, AI has helped people who have had strokes called an intracerebral hemorrhage. The patient receives a CT scan and then that scan is analyzed by a computer trained to interpret the data from the scan, which cuts diagnostic time and limits brain damage. This also helps with heart problems in which applying AI to ECGs results in low-cost testing that can be used to detect a weak heart pump. A weak heat pump leads to heart failure if left untreated.
(Source: https://www.mayoclinic.org/departments-centers/ai-cardiology/overview/ovc-20486648)
DIAGNOSING: When using an AI algorithm to diagnose certain cardiovascular disease, it’s a two-step process that uses 34,000 cardiac ultrasound videos. When the images are applied the algorithm identifies specific features related to thickness of heart walls and the size of heart chambers to flag certain patients as suspicious for having unrecognized cardiac diseases. Without the comprehensive testing, cardiologists find it challenging to distinguish between similar-appearing diseases and changes to the heart shape. Size can be considered part of normal aging, so this algorithm will accurately see if the heart is growing abnormally, and also detect life-threatening cardiac conditions.
NEW STUDY: Researchers at the University of Utah Health are studying a new way of predicting cardiovascular diseases that affect the heart and blood vessels. Scientists have shown that artificial intelligence could lead to better ways to predict the onset of cardiovascular disease. The researchers, working with colleagues from Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, developed computational tools to precisely measure the effects of existing medical conditions on the heart and blood vessels. These findings could eventually lead to personalized, preventive medicine. Doctors could contact patients to alert them to problems and the potential treatments that are available.
(Source: https://healthcare.utah.edu/publicaffairs/news/2022/01/ai-cardio.php)
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS REPORT, PLEASE CONTACT:
Megan McCann
(312) 926-5900
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