Artificial intelligence can now predict heart failure, and that may save lives

An artificial intelligence system has accurately predicted when patients with heart conditions will die, according to new results published in the journal Radiology. The study was conducted by a team of scientists at the London Institute of Medical Services, who trained the software to analyze blood tests and intricate 3D models of beating hearts in order to detect signs of failure. The AI was assigned 256 patients diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension, a type of high blood pressure which impacts the lungs and can cause dizziness, fainting, and shortness of breath. By tracking the movement of 30,000 different points on a patient's heart, it was able to construct an intricate 3D scan of the organ. Combining these models with patient health records going back eight years, the system could learn which abnormalities signaled a patient's approaching death, making predictions about five years into the future.