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A.I. Week: How artificial intelligence is saving lives in our hospitals

Posted at 11:02 AM, May 09, 2023
and last updated 2023-05-09 18:21:47-04

(WXYZ) — Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the international medical field, and in the near future, its role in our hospitals is expected to just keep growing.

At the moment, medical experts agree the intelligence is most tightly linked to radiology, at the Detroit Medical Center, they say AI has been a game changer in how they diagnose and intervene for stroke patients.

"I wanted to have an impact, do something that could make a difference in people’s life," said Herve Djoundi, a master's student studying artificial intelligence.

Djoundi grew up in Cameroon, Africa where access to medical facilities and doctors are extremely scarce.

Because of this, he spent his adolescence watching family and friends spend months growing sicker as they waited for help. He moved to the United States to change that.

"I found out that liver disease was the number one cause of cancer in Cameroon, so I decided to start looking into the issue," said Djoundi.

Now a master’s student in artificial intelligence at Lawrence Technological University, Djoundi is working with AI machine learning.

How Teachable Machine works

He plans to use the artificial intelligence to diagnose patients in Africa earlier to save their lives.

"If you catch the disease early, you can get treated and your liver can recover, but if you don’t know, then you have a liver failure," he said.

"Machine learning" is the form of AI being used in many hospitals around the world.

Related:

A free website Teachable Machine shows the basics of how it works.

In a few minutes, the AI can learn the difference between my water bottle with a sticky note, or my water bottle without.

In the similar way, AI can learn to detect abnormalities in the human body.

"So it’s absolutely been a game changer with regard to the stroke care, absolute game changer," said Rudolph Valentini, Chief Medical Officer, DMC & Children's Hospital of Michigan.

Full Interview: A.I.'s impact on medicine

At the Detroit Medical Center and Children's Hospital, their chief medical officer tells 7 Action News that AI's largest role is diagnosing stroke patients and intervening quicker, which is saving lives.

"We’re finally leveraging the power of computers and the mathematical models that allow us to predict," said Valentini. "The AI tools are not going to replace doctors or nurses, but they’re going to basically enhance and improve the efficiency of doctors to communicate with one another, allow more timely diagnosis and just make us better at what we do."

It's a direct parallel to how Djoundi is working for faster liver disease diagnoses.

DMC is also working to expand the AI to detect internal bleeding within the brain and potentially fatal blood clots sooner.

In this moment, AI is revolutionizing the medical world, the future is here.

"I think the sky's the limit honestly for AI, I think we just have to be careful that we use it responsibly, that we don’t become overly reliant on it," said Valentini.