CLEVELAND — We see it in grocery stores, social media and many are using it for work: artificial intelligence.
It’s making its way into the world at lightning speed, and that includes the medical field.
Dr. Imad Najm, an epilepsy specialist at Cleveland Clinic, said when it comes to deciphering brainwaves, time is of the essence.
Technologists at Cleveland Clinic monitor hundreds of electroencephalograms — or EEGs — on any given day.
An EEG is a test that measures electrical activity in the brain.
“For 24 hours of these brain waves, second by second, it takes on average two hours to read this,” Najm said.
Najm is part of a team working on reducing the time it takes to get answers from mounds of readings.
They’re hoping to develop a tool that would decipher if a patient has epilepsy or is having seizures.
Cleveland Clinic has teamed up with a San Francisco-based AI startup to build a tool that will read brainwaves and decipher anything abnormal and be able to determine what needs immediate attention.
Najm said it’s particularly critical for people in intensive care who may not be responsive.
The tool would also help alleviate a heavy load. Najm said technologists are rare and hard to find. This would allow hospitals to monitor more people and provide a higher level of care.
Giving “immediate feedback to a treating physician wherever they are … in rural areas … in remote areas,” he said.
The project is still in phase one. The team is gathering EEGs from previous cases that have been solved and will present them to AI specialists. They will then train the tool to read them. The second phase will entail the hospital validating the results.
Najm said he’s excited to make a difference in the lives of people who suffer.
“Can you imagine? Take all 28 epilepsy physician intelligence and expertise and condense them into one single algorithm here? That’s big,” he said.
