(Seeing as I already posted an AI-is-dangerous article, here’s one that shows the benefits of AI.)

Inside a bustling unit at St. Michael’s Hospital in downtown Toronto, one of Shirley Bell’s patients was suffering from a cat bite and a fever, but otherwise appeared fine — until an alert from an AI-based early warning system showed he was sicker than he seemed.

While the nursing team usually checked blood work around noon, the technology flagged incoming results several hours beforehand. That warning showed the patient’s white blood cell count was “really, really high,” recalled Bell, the clinical nurse educator for the hospital’s general medicine program.

The cause turned out to be cellulitis, a bacterial skin infection. Without prompt treatment, it can lead to extensive tissue damage, amputations and even death. Bell said the patient was given antibiotics quickly to avoid those worst-case scenarios, in large part thanks to the team’s in-house AI technology, dubbed Chartwatch.

“There’s lots and lots of other scenarios where patients’ conditions are flagged earlier, and the nurse is alerted earlier, and interventions are put in earlier,” she said. “It’s not replacing the nurse at the bedside; it’s actually enhancing your nursing care.”

  • stealth_cookies
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    3 months ago

    AI has tons of potential but the final decision should come from a person that evaluates the output for correctness. This is a great example of that.

    • Melody Fwygon@beehaw.org
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      3 months ago

      Agreed; when an AI is used to bring things to the attention of a qualified human handler; the two working in tandem can be pretty effective.

      AI alone should never make decisions; and humans should always evaluate an AI’s findings carefully before acting on them.

  • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
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    3 months ago

    AI tool cuts unexpected deaths in hospital by 26%, with a sword, making it expected deaths.

    Modern problems require modern solution.