Hospitals Roll Out AI Systems to Keep Patients From Dying of Sepsis

In hospitals, doctors and nurses keep vigilant watch over patients' vital signs and blood tests to catch the first symptoms of sepsis. In this life-threatening condition, the body responds to an infection with widespread inflammation that can lead to organ failure. Cases can progress rapidly to severe sepsis and then to septic shock, which has a mortality rate of almost 50 percent in the United States. But even the most vigilant humans get tired, make mistakes, and miss subtle patterns. That's why several hospitals are experimenting with artificially intelligent sepsis detectors.