How Are US Medical Institutions Using AI Tools?


How Are US Medical Institutions Using AI Tools?

Ten days before the WHO released its official statement alerting people to the emergence of COVID-19, AI-based SaaS company BlueDot “picked up on a cluster of ‘unusual pneumonia’ cases” happening around a market in Wuhan, China. Early detection of what turned into a global pandemic is just one example of AI’s potential when it comes to health tech.

While experts agree that AI is still in its infancy, AI tools, solutions and algorithms are already making a big difference in the global healthcare system. Along with the UK and Israel, the US has been the quickest to adopt AI in its healthcare system. In this article, we take a look at US medical institutions using AI tools.

Later in our blog, we’ll dive intoother emerging AI in healthcare markets

Top US healthcare providers using AI tools

So far, the US has implemented more AI solutions in its healthcare systems than any other country. Some of these institutions are: 

Mayo Clinic

Since 2017, Mayo Clinic has been working closely with health tech companies Tempus and Kardio Pro. Tempus develops customized cancer care with the help of its machine learning platform. The health tech is helping Mayo Clinic with molecular sequencing and analysis related to immunotherapy for various types of cancer. 

Mayo Clinic is also using the AI-powered device Kardio Pro to detect atrial fibrillation. Heart disease is a leading cause of death in the US and Mayo Clinic invested in this device to monitor patients for early signs of atrial fibrillation, which poses five times greater risk than stroke. 

Cleveland Clinic 

In 2016, Cleveland Clinic partnered with Microsoft to use the company’s AI-digital assistant, Cortana, for monitoring at-risk ICU patients, especially those at high risk from cardiac arrest. Vasopressors, a group of medicine administered to such patients also increase blood pressure and Cortana helps predict whether a patient will need vasopressors in the event of a cardiac arrest. 

Massachusetts General Hospital 

In 2016, MGH’s Clinical Data Science Center partnered with NVIDIA to implement various AI applications. The initial AI project was directed towards radiology and pathology, thanks to MGH's expansive database populated with 10 billion medical images. Future projects will include EHR and genomics.  

Johns Hopkins Hospital

Johns Hopkins Hospital teamed with GE Healthcare Partners to form the Judy Reitz Capacity Command Center. The center interfaces with 14 different Johns Hopkins IT systems, receives 500 messages per minute and has been able to streamline triage. The Center reports 60% improvement in their ability to admit patients with complex medical conditions, 30% faster bed assignments and 21% faster patient discharges before noon. 

UCLA Medical Center 

Since 2017, UCLA Medical Center has been using what is essentially an AI-powered chatbot to “automatically communicate with referring clinicians and quickly provide evidence-based answers to frequently asked questions.” Designed by UCLA researchers Dr. Edward Lee and Dr. Kevin Seals, the Virtual Interventional Radiologist (VIR) has been helping physicians “communicate information to patients, such as providing overview of an interventional radiology treatment or next steps in a treatment plan in real-time.”

AI isn’t just revolutionizing healthcare in the U.S. – medical institutions across the world are harnessing the power of AI. In the UK, the NHS started using Sleepio, a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for insomnia, to help 11 million people in London and Oxfordshire sleep at night. You can see Sleepio founder and CEO Peter Hames and other health tech experts discuss the intricacies of such collaborations in our Leading Health Tech Innovation course.
View All Articles