Artificial intelligence could be used to identify patients at risk of heart failure, allowing them to be treated earlier, researchers have suggested. The algorithm has been trained to identify early symptoms of the condition using patient health records and could bring forward diagnoses by two years, according to medics behind the platform. The British Heart Foundation (BHF) estimates there more than one million people in the UK with heart failure, which prevents the heart from pumping blood around the body properly.
For the study, which was funded by the BHF, researchers used the patient records of 565,284 UK adults to train the AI algorithm, known as Find-HF. It was then further tested on a database of 106,026 records from Taiwan National University Hospital. AI was able to accurately predict the patients at the highest risk of developing heart failure, and those who could be admitted to hospital with the condition, within five years.
Professor Chris Gale, a consultant cardiologist in the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and University of Leeds, said: "Data are collected about patients in every interaction they have with healthcare. This is an extremely powerful and unique national resource, and it is time to use these data to benefit patients." "Find-HF could potentially bring diagnoses forward by two years, opening a crucial window of opportunity for treatments to make the most difference.
" Researchers suggested the platform could be used by GPs as an early warning syst.
