Spectrum News 1: Using AI To Boost Heart Health
Spectrum News 1 recently interviewed Cedars-Sinai cardiologist Raj Khandwalla, MD, director of Digital Therapeutics at the Smidt Heart Institute, about an AI platform created at Cedars-Sinai that helps optimize medications and reduce hospitalizations for heart failure patients.
Heart failure occurs when the heart is too weak to pump enough blood to the body. The condition affects 6.7 million people in the U.S., and although lifesaving medications are available, many patients don’t receive optimal treatment tailored to their specific needs.
To address this gap, Khandwalla developed the AI platform, in partnership with Cedars-Sinai Technology Ventures, to help physicians determine medication recommendations and monitor patients remotely.
“What we wanted to do with this heart failure system is to be able to provide care, not just here but also at home,” Khandwalla told Spectrum News 1 reporter Jasdeep Kang.
Patients measure their blood pressure remotely and upload the data to an app, where the AI system analyzes it and suggests medications for cardiologists to consider.
Khandwalla told Kang that he published results from the first group of patients using the technology in JACC: Heart Failure. The study found that cardiologists agreed with the AI treatment recommendations 90.8% of the time, which doubled the use of lifesaving heart failure medications and led to a 74% reduction in hospitalizations.
“A cardiologist makes the final decision,” Khandwalla said, emphasizing the critical role physicians still play.
One of the study participants, Clarence Witherspoon, says the program gives him confidence in his health: “It’s a blessed assurance that I can go another day.”
Watch the entire segment from Spectrum News 1.