'Computers better than doctors for predicting heart failure'

Computers are better than doctors at predicting which patients are most at risk from heart failure, London researchers revealed today. Machines using artificial intelligence were right on 75 per cent of occasions, compared with 59 per cent achieved by clinicians. The world-first breakthrough could pave the way for tailor-made care for the 920,000 Britons with heart failure, leading to improved survival rates by better determining who requires surgery and who can be treated with tablets. The findings came as a Department of Health review called for NHS staff, overstretched as a result of 100,000 vacancies, to become more "digital savvy" and embrace technology to improve patient care. Today's research, led by a team at Imperial College London, used computer programme 4Dsurvival to analyse historic MRI heart scans from 302 people with pulmonary hypertension.