Plan to harness Artificial Intelligence for health THERE’S Big...

Plan to harness Artificial Intelligence for health
THERE’S Big Brother and Big Data: South Australia is about to get “Big Doctor”, a cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) that analyses health and intervenes when it spots something amiss.
The Australian-first digital health platform will automatically and continuously analyse data put into the health system from hospital tests and even tests done at home — and alert human doctors if it finds a problem that needs early intervention.

The Hospital 4.0 initiative will harness wearable and point-of-care devices to monitor real-time patient health and link patients to health service providers and care options.

The Federal Government has awarded a $340,000 grant to a team of Country Health SA clinicians and South Australian IT experts to develop the plan, starting with rural cardiovascular patients.
Former head of SA Health, Ray Blight, is involved through the medical technology company he chairs, Alcidion Group Limited, and says it has potential to halve demand for hospital beds.
“The greatest first-world killer behind heart disease and cancer is avoidable errors in health care delivery,” Mr Blight said.

“A key focus of Hospital 4.0 will be monitoring patients’ clinical risk data for signs that something is going wrong so that an early intervention can correct the situation.”

The AI system would automatically seek additional health information from the patient if required, such as blood pressure, weight and even blood analysis, recommend escalation of care if needed, and ensure the treating health professional has access to real-time guidance about the patient’s condition and medical history.

“Our task now is to develop commercial pathways and implement a pilot program to prove this innovation in South Australia before taking it to the world,” Mr Blight said.
“Our initial clinical focus will be to support cardiovascular services in regional and remote South Australia but the infrastructure will be commercially scalable to other chronic diseases and across Australia and beyond.”