A study conducted at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2023 recently found that an artificial intelligence-powered smartphone app could accurately forecast more than 75% of heart failure hospitalizations for patients about three weeks ahead of time.

Dr. William T. Abraham's work highlighted the value of voice analysis as a cutting-edge tool for remote patient heart failure monitoring.

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center's Dr. Abraham, a medicine, physiology, and cell biology professor, emphasized how this technology might improve patient outcomes.

He proposed that proactive outpatient care could be facilitated by early detection of voice changes, thereby reducing the risk of hospitalization and enhancing patient satisfaction.

Words From the Heart

The American Heart Association reports that 416 Israeli heart failure patients participated in a study from March 2018 to April 2023.

They recorded everyday words in multiple languages using the Cordio HearO® app during this time.

Initially, 153 additional people were used to test an AI system created using speech data from 263 participants. In training, the app correctly predicted that heart failure would worsen about 24 days in advance, and in validation, it did so for three weeks.

It predicted 76% of occurrences during training, with three needless warnings for each patient a year. During validation, 71% of events were identified, with roughly three unexplained signs yearly.

Researchers have emphasized its ability to predict episodes to reduce pointless notifications and maybe hospital admissions.

A current study in the United States is working to improve the technology to alleviate the study's small size constraint. It included information on speech metrics, recording frequency, and demographics.

These results await peer-reviewed publication despite being presented to the American Heart Association. Meeting statements are the opinions of the writers, not necessarily the Association's position, as the Association made clear.

The disclosures, co-authors, and funding sources were listed. The Association receives funding from foundations, corporations, and people; however, regulations are in place to ensure scientific independence despite these relationships.

Financial information is transparently available.

AI Getting More Important in the Field of Medicine

AI is becoming increasingly prevalent in diagnostics, as evidenced by the development of apps anticipating heart failure.

According to reports from the Southern Medical Association, the United States had a 5% incidence of misdiagnosis among outpatients in 2021. This led to the incorporation of AI to help with diagnostics.

Babylon developed AI symptom checkers three years ago to lower diagnostic errors in primary care settings.

Although AI has long been used in diagnosis, the new heart failure app represents a focused development in managing this illness.

Also, recently, another AI-powered application started surfacing as it helps to have safer liver surgery.

Dr. Patrick Starlinger led an international team to create a smartphone app predicting liver surgery risks. This innovative tool uses patient data to forecast potential liver failure post-surgery, surpassing traditional tests for accuracy.

Drawing from a study of 14,000+ patients, the app, detailed in the Annals of Surgery, enhances surgical safety. It considers individual patient factors and offers a less invasive alternative to established liver function tests, proving effective or better in predicting liver failure.

This groundbreaking technology heralds personalized care advancements in healthcare.