AI can predict when we’ll die, researchers say

Artificial intelligence is proving to be a revolutionary tool across many industries, but the technology is having a particularly big impact when it comes to healthcare.

Researchers are using AI to combat the flu, by building improved seasonal forecasts that inform the development of influenza vaccines, and the technology is already helping to diagnose rare diseases so that patients can get the treatments they need.

Now, scientists have found a new medical application for AI: predicting when a seriously ill patient admitted to the hospital will likely die.

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In hospitals, palliative care teams are charged with improving the quality of life of gravely ill patients and making sure their final wishes are carried out.

But clinicians sometimes don’t refer their patients to these specialists because they believe their patients are better off than they really are.

Research shows that less than half of the 8 percent of hospital admissions who need palliative care actually receive it, says Kenneth Jung, a research scientist at Stanford University School of Medicine who helped develop the new AI algorithm.

 

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