Mayo Clinic is combining artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning with clinical practice to improve care. AI is intelligence exhibited by machines, and it's being used at Mayo Clinic to program computers to process and respond to data quickly and consistently for better treatment outcomes.

These technologies complement the knowledge of doctors. Radiology was one of the first areas that saw a lot of AI applications.

Watch: Using artificial intelligence in clinical practice.

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Using AI in health care seems like a futuristic concept, but it's something that's being used to complement the knowledge of doctors. Radiology was one of the first areas that saw a lot of AI applications.

"Radiology has had the lead, partly because AI is driven by data, and radiology has a lot of digital data already ready to be used by AI."

Dr. Bradley Erickson, director of Mayo Clinic's AI Lab, says in the case of radiology, machine learning is used to complete some of the more time-consuming work.

"It's actually doing a lot of the more mundane work like tracing tumors and tracing structures. Measuring the amount of fat and muscle in body CTs is another example," says Dr. Erickson. "If a computer can do that first pass, that can help us a lot."

Beyond that, the diagnostic capabilities of AI are what attract a lot of the appeal.

"We also use it for some diagnostic purposes — for instance, to help detect intracranial aneurysms, intracranial stroke and pulmonary embolism. And we also use it for identifying some potential molecular markers."

While imaging-related AI has seen a lot of advancements, Dr. Bhavik Patel, director of AI at Mayo Clinic Arizona, says the next step is looking at AI applications for preventive health and shifting the mindset from pipeline to platform thinking.

"We have an AI model now that can incidentally say, "Hey, you've got a lot of coronary artery calcium in your heart, and you're at high risk for a heart attack or stroke in five years." And you might not have otherwise known that. Now that we've detected this, and we can see in your electronic medical record that you're not seeing a primary care physician and you're not on a cholesterol-lowering medications, let's get you plugged in with specialized care providers within Mayo Clinic to do further workup. In this way, we are more proactive and not reactive by waiting for that patient to come back to us in the future with a heart attack or stroke — both preventable events," says Dr. Patel.

There is a broad area of applications (for AI), starting in radiology, but really spreading into the rest of the clinic, including cardiology and even pathology.

Both Dr. Erickson and Dr. Patel took part in a panel discussion about AI Adoption for Clinical Practice during the Mayo Clinic Platform Conference this past July. In addition to Dr. Erickson and Dr. Patel, the panel included other Mayo Clinic experts:

• Dr. Carlos Mantilla, Dept, Chair, Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine  
• Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, Division Chair, Dept. of Preventive Cardiology
• Dr. Clark Otley, Chief Medical Officer, Mayo Clinic

Watch the panel discussion: AI Adoption for Clinical Practice

Related posts:

• Mayo Clinic Q&A podcast: Cardiology pumps AI into patient care
• Mayo researchers use AI to detect weak heart pump via patients’ Apple Watch ECGs
• Mayo Clinic Platform_Accelerate program begins with four AI startups

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ROCHESTER, Minn. — Artificial intelligence (AI) is going to change health care, including the practice of radiology, profoundly. But rather than machines taking over, clinicians and researchers will use them to improve patient care.

“If somebody puts their head in the sand, and wakes up and pulls their head out five years later, the practice will be very different,” says Bradley Erickson, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic diagnostic radiologist.

To help with this transitional time, Dr. Erickson and colleagues in the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) and Nvidia Corp., a computer chip manufacturer and technology company, developed a course for radiologists interested in acquiring or developing the skills needed to navigate AI advancements. This course, called the “Deep Learning Institute,” will be held throughout the RSNA Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting Nov. 25–30 in Chicago.

There are an introductory course and four others covering different aspects of deep learning — four 90-minute courses daily Nov. 25–29 and two Nov. 30. Participants will be expected to bring a laptop and write code.

“We will give them most of the code, but we have intentionally introduced some bugs to see if they can find them and if they really understand what’s going on,” Dr. Erickson says. “That is definitely a hands-on course, and the intent is to give them enough experience with deep learning that they can go home and have essentially a good starter set where they can start to do some of this work at home.”

The advances in AI and machine learning are not unlike the emergence of other new technologies that were predicted to be “industry killers,” Dr. Erickson says. He adds that once people started applying the technologies to their work, they realized they were complementary rather than a replacement.

“I think ultimately we still want a human with their hands on the medical ‘steering wheel,’ just like with self-driving cars,” Dr. Erickson says. “I think that this is why it would be unwise for a radiologist to say, ‘AI doesn’t matter.’ I think it will change what we do, but I think that if we remain engaged, it will actually make the practice of radiology a lot better and a lot more interesting.”

Brian Bartholmai, M.D., chair, Radiology Informatics Division, says the natural progression from advanced and cutting-edge to normal and no big deal is evolutionary, and the same will be true of augmented human intelligence in medicine.

“Mayo Clinic has a strong history of early clinical application of advanced technology that eventually is no longer considered cutting-edge. It’s just everyday technology now,” he says, citing the first clinical CT scanner in the U.S. in the early 1970s, as well as a digital radiology information system and third-party DICOM, or Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine, image archive in the early 1990s as examples.

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Media contact:

• Ethan Grove, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, 507-284-5005, newsbureau@mayo.edu

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"Finding data that's faster, that works continuously like computers do to help make rare diagnoses or faster diagnoses," Dr. David Freeman, a Mayo Clinic neurologist, says.

Watch: The Mayo Clinic Minute

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Dr. Freeman has helped develop AI that could soon improve outcomes for people who suffer from a certain kind of stroke called an intracerebral hemorrhage, or ICH.

Right now, patients with an ICH go to a hospital with symptoms, get a CAT scan, then have to wait for results and for doctors to figure out how to address it. During all that time, their chances of dying increase every minute.

"It's been estimated 1.9 million neurons die for every minute a stroke patient is having a stroke," Dr. Freeman says.

Dr. Freeman's team at Mayo is developing an AI system that can help cut down time and damage to the brain.

"A patient with an ICH will have that CAT scan analyzed by the machine learning and output specific treatment interventions ... for better outcomes," Dr. Freeman says.

He estimates AI could help save up to 30 minutes of precious time, which he hopes will save more lives.

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On the next Mayo Clinic Radio program, Dr. Tufia Haddad, a Mayo Clinic oncologist and the physician leader for Mayo Clinic’s collaboration with IBM Watson, will discuss AI and cognitive computing in health care. Also on the program, Dr. Tina Hieken, a Mayo Clinic surgeon, will explain a new fast-track breast cancer treatment option using brachytherapy. And Dr. Neena Abraham, a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist, shares research on anticoagulants and the risk of internal bleeding.

To hear the program, find an affiliate in your area.

Follow #MayoClinicRadio, and tweet your questions.

Mayo Clinic Radio is on iHeartRadio.

Mayo Clinic Radio produces a weekly one-hour radio program highlighting health and medical information from Mayo Clinic.

Access archived shows.

The post Mayo Clinic Radio: Artificial intelligence in health care appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

On the next Mayo Clinic Radio program, Dr. Tufia Haddad, a Mayo Clinic oncologist and the physician leader for Mayo Clinic’s collaboration with IBM Watson, will discuss AI and cognitive computing in health care. Also on the program, Dr. Tina Hieken, a Mayo Clinic surgeon, will explain a new fast-track breast cancer treatment option using brachytherapy. And Dr. Neena Abraham, a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist, shares research on anticoagulants and the risk of internal bleeding.

Miss the show?  Here's your Mayo Clinic Radio podcast.

To hear the program, find an affiliate in your area.

Follow #MayoClinicRadio, and tweet your questions.

Mayo Clinic Radio is on iHeartRadio.

Mayo Clinic Radio produces a weekly one-hour radio program highlighting health and medical information from Mayo Clinic.

Access archived shows.

The post Mayo Clinic Radio: Artificial intelligence in health care / brachytherapy / anticoagulant risks appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.