Artificial Intelligence Technology May Improve Care for Patients Needing Dialysis

Washington, DC (November 7, 2019) -- Machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence, may help improve care for patients with kidney failure. The findings come from a study that will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2019 November 5–November 10 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC. For the study, Ollie Fielding (pulseData, in New York) and his colleagues deployed a machine learning model to identify patients at risk of requiring kidney replacement therapy, such as dialysis or kidney transplantation. An electronic health record database of 110,998 patients was used to create a machine learning model to predict progression to kidney failure. The system calculates weekly risk scores for patients, and for those with high risk scores, an alert is sent so that treatment discussions can be made by a multidisciplinary team of clinicians.