Google's DeepMind wants AI to spot kidney injuries

Google subsidiary DeepMind announced today that it's working with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to use machine learning in an attempt to predict when patients will deteriorate during a hospital stay. Deterioration (when a patient's condition worsens) is a significant issue, since care providers can miss warning signs for potentially lethal conditions that arise as part of other treatment. DeepMind and the VA aim to tackle Acute Kidney Injury (AKI), which, as the name implies, occurs when a person's kidneys temporarily stop working as well as they should. That can mean kidney failure, or just injury that reduces kidney function. AKI can be fatal if untreated.