MEDICS can now predict one of Britain’s biggest killer conditions 48 hours before it happens thanks to “mindblowing” artificial intelligence.
Acute kidney injury is responsible for 100,000 deaths in the UK annually and contributes to one in five NHS admissions.
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Silent killer is diagnosed too late
It is known as the “silent killer” because it is hard to detect and often diagnosed late.
The condition involves sudden damage or decreased blood flow to the kidneys and can lead to organ failure and death.
But if treated early, one in three cases are preventable – around 30,000 a year.
AI spots 9 in 10 cases
Scientists at Google-owned DeepMind Health have now developed artificial intelligence that can spot the killer two days early.
It analyses 600,000 data points – such as blood tests, heart rate and blood pressure – to calculate whether someone will develop AKI.
Tests on health records of 700,000 US participants found it detected nine in ten of the most serious cases.
Currently, there is no standard method of early prediction, with medics relying on guesswork until a patient deteriorates.
Researchers hope to start piloting the technology in UK hospitals next year.
If successfully rolled out across the NHS, it could help save thousands of lives.
Could spot sepsis too
And experts think it could be used to detect other deadly conditions, such as sepsis.
Dr Dom King, from DeepMind Health, said: “This progress represents potentially a very significant change in how medicine is practised and care is delivered.
“A lot of care at the moment is very reactive and this represents the potential to re-move the needle to proactive, preventative care.
“It really is mindblowing for me as a doctor that in some way these AI systems are almost doing what an expert physician does.”
The findings were published in the journal Nature.
The DeepMind team have also trialled a mobile app which analyses patient data and immediately alerts medical teams to high risk cases.
The tech, which has been piloted at the Royal Free Hospital in London, was four times less likely to miss AKI than standard methods.
And it picked up cases in under 14 minutes, compared to several hours.
Dr Chris Streather, Royal Free London chief medical officer, said the results were “incredibly encouraging”.
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