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Health products powered by artificial intelligence, or AI, are streaming into our lives, from virtual doctor apps to wearable sensors and drugstore chatbots. IBM boasted that its AI could “outthink cancer.” Others say computer systems that read X-rays will make radiologists obsolete. Yet many health industry experts fear AI-based products won’t be able to match the hype. Many doctors and consumer advocates fear that the tech industry, which lives by the mantra “fail fast and fix it later,” is putting patients at risk and that regulators aren’t doing enough to keep consumers safe. Early experiments in AI provide reason for caution, said Mildred Cho, a professor of pediatrics at Stanford’s Center for Biomedical Ethics. Systems developed in one hospital often flop when deployed in a different facility, Cho said. Software used in the care of millions of Americans has been shown to discriminate against minorities. And AI systems sometimes learn to make predictions based on factors that have less to do with disease than the brand of MRI machine used, the time a blood test is taken or whether a patient was visited by a chaplain. In one case, AI software incorrectly concluded that people with pneumonia were less likely to die if they had asthma an error that could have led doctors to deprive asthma patients of the extra care they need. “It’s only a matter of time before something like this leads to a serious health problem,” said Steven Nissen, chairman of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic. Read full story Source: Scientific American, 24 December 2019

MedAware, a developer of AI-based patient safety solutions, has announced the publication of a study by The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, validating both the significant clinical impact and anticipated ROI of MedAware's machine learning-enabled clinical decision support platform designed to prevent medication-related errors and risks. The study analysed MedAware's clinical relevance and accuracy and estimated the platform's direct cost savings for adverse events potentially prevented in Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's Hospitals' outpatient clinics. If the system had been operational, the estimated direct cost savings of the avoidable adverse events would have been more than $1.3 million when extrapolating the study's findings to the full patient population. Dr David Bates, study co-author, Professor at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Center for Patient Safety Research & Practice at Brigham and Women's Hospital, said: "Because it is not rule-based, MedAware represents a paradigm shift in medication-related risk mitigation and an innovative approach to improving patient safety." Read full story Source: CISION PR Newswire, 16 December 2019

Royal Cornwall Hospital has deployed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that allows clinicians to view case videos safely and securely. Touch Surgery Enterprise enables automatic processing and viewing of surgical videos for clinicians and their teams without compromising sensitive patient data. These videos can be accessed via mobile app or web shortly after the operation to encourage self-reflection, peer review and improve preoperative preparation. James Clark, consultant upper gastrointestinal and bariatric surgeon at the trust, said: “Having seamless access to my surgical videos has had an immense impact on my practice both in terms of promoting patient safety and for educating the next generation of surgeons." Read full story Source: Digital Health, 28 November 2019

East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust has adopted artificial intelligence (AI) to test the health of patient’s eyes. In collaboration with doctors at the trust, the University of Kent has developed AI computer software able to detect signs of eye disease. Patients will benefit from a machine-based method that compares new images of the eye with previous patient images to monitor clinical signs and notify the doctor if their condition has worsened. Nishal Patel, an Ophthalmology Consultant at the Trust and teacher at the University said: “We are seeing more and more people with retinal disease and machines can help with some of the capacity issues faced by our department and others across the country." “We are not taking the job of a doctor away, but we are making it more efficient and at the same time helping determine how artificial intelligence will shape the future medicine. By automating some of the decisions, so that stable patients can be monitored and unstable patients treated earlier, we can offer better outcomes for our patients.” Read full story Source: National Health Executive, 22 November 2019

Artificial Intelligence is creating a lot of buzz in the US and around the world. This perspective from the US site AHRQ Patient Safety Net explores a range of issues that could affect the uptake artificial intelligence systems in health care. What do hub members think? Are we destined to encounter Hal (from 2001: a Space Odyssey) or Samantha (from Her)? Emerging safety issues in artificial intelligence