The Cleveland Clinic is partnering with San Francisco-based startup Piramidal to develop a large-scale AI model that will be used to monitor patients' brain health in intensive care units. Instead of being trained on text, the system is based on electroencephalogram (EEG) data, which is collected via electrodes placed on the scalp and then read out by a computer in a series of wavy lines. EEG records the brain's electrical activity--and changes in this activity can indicate a problem. In an ICU setting, doctors scan EEG data looking for evidence of seizures, altered consciousness, or a decline in brain function. Currently, doctors rely on continuous EEG monitoring to detect abnormal brain activity in an ICU patient, but they can't monitor every individual patient in real time.

Locating the source of an epileptic seizure can be tricky. Even the most advanced MRI can't pinpoint lesions, scars or other abnormalities on the brain in one-quarter of epilepsy patients. Cleveland Clinic experts are turning to artificial intelligence to help bridge the gap. Neurologists and brain surgeons from the Clinic's Epilepsy Center are using AI and advanced medical imaging techniques to help locate the source of a patient's seizures. That gives surgeons a better chance of removing any brain tissue that's associated with those seizures, which could help the patient live seizure-free for years. The use of AI has already helped the Clinic improve the odds a surgery will result in a patient living without seizures, said Dr. Imad Najm, the director of the Epilepsy Center at the Cleveland Clinic Neurological Institute.