How hospitals are using AI to save their sickest patients and curb 'alarm fatigue'

From interpreting CT scans to diagnosing eye disease, artificial intelligence is taking on medical tasks once reserved for only highly trained medical specialists -- and in many cases outperforming its human counterparts. Now AI is starting to show up in intensive care units, where hospitals treat their sickest patients. Doctors who have used the new systems say AI may be better at responding to the vast trove of medical data collected from ICU patients -- and may help save patients who are teetering between life and death. "Critical care is essentially this interface between humans and technology," says Peter Laussen, chief of critical care medicine at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. "The amount of data streaming from the patient in the ICU is huge," encompassing readings of blood pressure, heartbeat, oxygen levels and other vital signs.