Researchers use artificial intelligence to predict heart diseases and complications

Researchers have demonstrated that artificial intelligence can lead to better predictions of the onset and course of cardiovascular diseases, allowing physicians to prevent, treat or foresee serious heart problems even before the patient becomes aware of any underlying conditions. Although the focus of the study was for cardiovascular diseases, according to the researchers, the findings could pave the way for a new era of personalised, preventive medicine, allowing doctors to proactively alert patients on potential ailments and suggest treatments to alleviate the problems, before the onset of serious conditions. Martin Tristani-Firouzi, corresponding author of the study says, "We can turn to AI to help refine the risk for virtually every medical diagnosis. The risk of cancer, the risk of thyroid surgery, the risk of diabetes -- any medical term you can imagine." The current approaches for calculating the combined effects of various risk factors, including demographics and medical history on cardiovascular diseases are imperfect and subjective, with the methods failing to identify certain interactions that can have a profound effect on the health of the heart and the blood vessels.