Japan team builds AI model to identify diabetes risk from electrocardiogram data

Researchers from the Institute of Science Tokyo and other institutions have developed an AI model that detects high diabetes risk using only electrocardiogram data. A team of researchers from organizations such as the Institute of Science Tokyo said Tuesday it has developed an artificial intelligence model that can detect a high risk of diabetes using only electrocardiogram (EKG) data. This method, which does not require blood tests, can lead to possible early detection of the disease and help those at high risk review their lifestyles, according to the team. Together with other team members, Tetsuya Yamada, a professor at the university, divided about 16,000 people who underwent medical checkups in Tokyo in 2022 into a group of diabetics and prediabetics, with higher-than-standard blood sugar levels, and a group of subjects with normal readings. The team put its EKG data into an AI model to analyze minuscule changes in cardiac muscle movement that appear in the prediabetic stage.