Big data and predictive analytics are becoming more prominent in clinical decision making, and clinicians at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago are using these tools to predict if a patient will present with a potential rare disease, reports the Chicago Tribune.
Dino Rumoro, DO, chairman of Rush's department of emergency medicine, developed a suite of software tools using an artificial intelligence platform that analyzes and learns from EMRs, according to the report. The platform, named Guardian, uses information entered in the EMR to flag potential warning signs or indicators of a rare disease, such as if a patient recently traveled to South America, which could indicate a potential Zika diagnosis.
Artificial intelligence functions much how a clinician might, Dr. Rumoro said in the report. "We took the way a clinician thinks and we made a computer think like a clinician," he said.
Dr. Rumoro began work on Guardian in 1995 and has since further developed the technology and applications to predict if a patient presenting in the ER needs to be hospitalized and to detect biological threats, according to the report.
Dr. Rumoro and his team also started a company called Guardian Health Technologies to sell its platform to other organizations, according to the report.
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