Artificial intelligence has already started to be used in Medicine. For example, in some cases it is a valuable helper in the diagnosis of diseases as if properly practiced it can “read” medical images with great precision distinguishing whether or not pathological tissues are present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, it is much more difficult to train an AI system to make the right therapeutic decisions and even in the most difficult conditions \u2013 inside Intensive Care Units (ICUs) where critically ill patients are cared for and whose lives are often hanging in the balance. This is exactly what an AI system developed by researchers from the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) in collaboration with experts from the Medical University of Vienna has achieved, according to their publication in the scientific journal “Journal of Clinical Medicine”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the help of a wide range of data obtained from the ICUs of several hospitals, the researchers developed the AI system which can make recommendations about which therapeutic approach should be taken in critically ill patients with sepsis. Analysis showed that artificial intelligence was able to make better decisions than humans. However, as the researchers point out, it is very important that the legal ramifications of the use of such methods within ICUs are also discussed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Make better decisions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n “Within the ICU, a lot of data is collected 24 hours a day. Patients are monitored with medical devices around the clock. We wanted to investigate whether this data could be used in an even better way than today,” said Prof. Clemens Heitzinger from the Institute for Analysis and Computer Science at TU Wien, and described that ICU medical staff make decisions about the treatment of patients based on specific rules. Most of the time doctors know very well what parameters to consider in order to provide the best possible care to their patients. However, Artificial Intelligence can take into account many more parameters than humans, which in some cases leads it to make better decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AI- doctors: tick 1<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n “Sepsis is one of the most common causes of death in ICUs and represents a huge challenge for doctors and hospitals, as its early detection and treatment is vital for patient survival,” noted Professor Oliver Kimberger from Medicine University of Vienna and added that “to date there have been few achievements in this field, which makes the need for new treatments urgent. For this reason it is highly interesting to investigate whether artificial intelligence can contribute to the improvement of medical care and treatment. The use of machine learning models and other AI technologies is an opportunity to improve the diagnosis and treatment of sepsis, increasing the chances of patient survival.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The analysis of the experts in Austria showed that artificial intelligence has surpassed humans in this field: \u201cCure rates are now higher using the AI strategy than if only human decisions were made. In one of our studies cure rates \u2013 defined as avoidance of mortality over 90 days \u2013 increased by about 3%, to about 88% thanks to AI,\u201d said Dr. Heitzinger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the professor pointed out, this does not mean that medical decisions in ICUs should be made exclusively by computers. However, artificial intelligence could be an important helper that will be constantly at the head of patients and the medical staff will be able to consult it and evaluate its suggestions. Such systems will also be very useful in the training of students and young doctors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Artificial intelligence has already started to be used in Medicine. For example, in some cases it is a valuable helper in the diagnosis of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1168,2960],"tags":[864],"class_list":["post-13771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-technology","category-technology","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13773,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13771\/revisions\/13773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}