This bot sees what doctors sometimes cannot. Emory University researchers have created a "Sepsis Expert" algorithm that works in real time to predict the onset of sepsis, the deadly condition that often takes hold in healthcare settings. Banking on information from 31,000 patients admitted to 2 hospitals and data on 52,000 intensive care unit (ICU) patients from a public database, the researchers used machine learning to build an artificial intelligence (AI) technology that they hope will save lives. But, until now, that knowledge has not translated to insights for the individual. "What we lack is'situation awareness,' which is perceiving data, comprehending data, and projecting those data into the future to see whether there is an evolving threat to the patient," says Timothy George Buchman, PhD, MD, director of Emory's critical care center and co-author of a study on the tech.

Sepsis is a medical condition caused by an infection that leads to an immune response so vigorous it attacks the body itself, often spreading to the bloodstream, leading quickly – if unchecked – to death. Sepsis affects as many as 18 million people worldwide each year.[1] It causes 200,000 deaths annually in the United States, and is the number one killer of people who are hospitalized.[2] While many other diseases dominate the headlines of our health conversations, sepsis is "more common than heart attack, and claims more lives than any single cancer."[3] It is the most costly condition treated in U.S. hospitals.[4]