In England, the University of Oxford recently announced a major breakthrough in the prevention of heart attacks thanks to the development of a tool powered by artificial intelligence. It could help detect potentially fatal heart attacks years in advance.
The idea of researchers at the University of Oxford was to develop an intelligent system capable of analyzing cardiac risks using clever algorithms. While today doctors rely mainly on data such as the age and lifestyle of their patients to assess their risk of heart attacks, this tool uses algorithms responsible for examining more detailed medical data, for a personalized and much more precise risk assessment. It would thus be able to predict a risk up to ten years before an incident occurs.
The objective is to be able to identify high-risk patients who are unaware of them, in order to offer them appropriate preventive treatment. This tool could not only ultimately save lives, but also help reduce all health costs linked to the heavy treatments that generally follow a first attack. This would therefore be of benefit to both science and the British public health system.
Carried out on 744 patients, a first trial of this intelligent tool made it possible to improve the treatment of 45% of the panel studied. Each was assigned an AI-generated risk “score.” In almost one in two cases, doctors were able to modify their treatment plans for people who did not necessarily appear to be at risk.
The researchers behind these algorithms estimate that implementing this technology could result in a reduction of more than 20% in heart attacks and an 8% reduction in cardiac deaths and strokes among those tested. A larger-scale pilot program is expected to be launched soon in five hospitals.
As a reminder, cardiac accidents represent a third of deaths worldwide.