Using machine learning to estimate risk of cardiovascular death

Humans are inherently risk-averse: We spend our days calculating routes and routines, taking precautionary measures to avoid disease, danger, and despair. Still, our measures for controlling the inner workings of our biology can be a little more unruly. With that in mind, a team from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) came up with a new system for better predicting health outcomes: a machine learning model that can estimate, from the electrical activity of their heart, a patient's risk of cardiovascular death. The system, called "RiskCardio," focuses on patients who have survived an acute coronary syndrome (ACS), which refers to a range of conditions where there's a reduction or blockage of blood to the heart. Using just the first 15 minutes of a patient's raw electrocardiogram (ECG) signal, the tool produces a score that places patients into different risk categories.