How is AI Impacting Health Care Today?

By John Halamka and Paul Cerrato*We are often asked this question during interviews, podcasts and speaking engagements. It ’s a complicated question that requires context. A closer look at the research and product offerings in digital health demonstrates that there are several high-quality, well-documented algorithms now available, but there are also several questionable vendors that have rushed to market with little evidence to support their claims. Separating the wheat from the chaff can be a full-time occupation.We recently received a press release from a large U.S. company highlighting a new AI system that may be able to diagnose dementia using a patient ’s vocal patterns. The vendor pointed out that its research generated an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.74 for its system, which suggests that at least one in 4 patients with dementia would be overlooked. With these concerns in mind, the question is: What kind of guidelines can clinicians and tec hnologists on the front lines turn to when they want to make informed choices?Ideally, we need an impartial referee that can act as a Consumer Reports type service, weighing the strengths and weaknesses of AI offerings, with brief summaries of the evidence upon which they base its conclusions. In lieu of that, there are criteria that stakeholders can tap to help with the decision making process. As we point out in a recent review in theNew England Journal of Medicinejournal, calledNEJM Catalyst,at the very least, there shoul...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs