“AI Clinician” Makes Treatment Plans for Patients With Sepsis

Most experiments with artificial intelligence in medicine thus far have worked on the diagnostic side. AI systems have used computer vision to examine images like X-rays or pathology slides, and they have combed through data in electronic medical records to spot subtle patterns that humans can miss.

Just last week, IEEE Spectrum reported on hospitals that are trying out AI systems that identify patients with the first signs of sepsis, a life-threatening condition where the body responds to infection with widespread inflammation, which can lead to organ failure. Sepsis is the third leading cause of death worldwide, and the primary cause of death in hospitals.

But the technology that goes by the name AI Clinician, described today in a paper in Nature Medicine, doesn’t diagnose—it makes decisions. It takes all the information about a patient with sepsis and recommends a course of treatment.