Artificial intelligence identifies individuals at risk for heart disease complications
For the first time, University of Utah Health scientists have shown that artificial intelligence could lead to better ways to predict the onset and course of cardiovascular disease. The researchers, working in conjunction with physicians from Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, developed unique computational tools to precisely measure the synergistic effects of existing medical conditions on the heart and blood vessels.
The researchers say this comprehensive approach could help physicians foresee, prevent, or treat serious heart problems, perhaps even before a patient is aware of the underlying condition.
Although the study only focused on cardiovascular disease, the researchers believe it could have far broader implications. In fact, they suggest that these findings could eventually lead to a new era of personalized, preventive medicine. Doctors would proactively contact patients to alert them to potential ailments and what can be done to alleviate the problem.
“We can turn to AI to help refine the risk for virtually every medical diagnosis,” says Martin Tristani-Firouzi, M.D. the study’s corresponding author and a pediatric cardiologist at U of U Health and Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, and scientist at the Nora Eccles Harrison Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute. “The risk of cancer, the risk of thyroid surgery, the risk of diabetes — any medical term you can imagine.”
The study appears in the online journal PLOS Digital Health.
Current methods for calculating the combined effects of various risk factors — such as demographics and medical history — on cardiovascular disease are often imprecise and subjective, according to Mark Yandell, Ph.D., senior author of the study, a professor of human genetics, H.A. and Edna Benning Presidential Endowed Chair at U of U Health, and co-founder of Backdrop Health. As a result, these methods fail to identify certain interactions that could have profound effects on the health of the heart and blood vessels. More