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Kidney with biology and health care concept, 3d rendering. 3D illustration.<\/p>\n
getty<\/p>\n
We hear a lot about medical advances with AI, including at the conventions where people address the current realities around LLMs, but sometimes, it\u2019s good to get a little more of a granular idea of how positive change works on the backs of neural net capabilities. After all, AI doesn\u2019t just \u201crevolutionize medicine\u201d by itself: it provides the design capability for tools and solutions that clinicians, and administrators, still control.<\/p>\n
Some of this was on display as Ami Bhatt, Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) at the American College of Cardiology, interviewed Salvatore Viscomi of Carna Health about his company\u2019s achievements at the Imagination in Action event at Davos in January. (Disclaimer: I help to run Imagination in Action, a free conference on AI at the Swiss convention.)<\/p>\n
First of all, Viscomi clarified that Carna has been focusing on chronic kidney disease, and described how this works in terms of serving world populations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s predicted to be the fifth cause of death around the world. And one is: there’s a lack of awareness. There\u2019s a lack of specialists around the world. There\u2019s a lack of resources. So AI can only help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Predictive Analysis, and Upskilling<\/p>\n
Viscomi named these two aspects as needs around this kind of innovation. <\/p>\n
In many parts of the world where the disease is poorly understood \u2026 identifying who’s at risk of disease, and then risk of progression, is really important,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As for the upskilling:<\/p>\n
\u201c(It\u2019s) taking advantage of the resources that are available,\u201d he said. \u201cPrimary care doctors, pharmacists, nurses \u2026 when a specialist is not available, upskilling them, so they can be able to take care of patients who need treatment. So when we think about this area of kidney metabolic disease, it really needs to be addressed at the governmental level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luckily, the company, he said, recognizes government champions, officials who advocate for addressing these problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want this to be a national program, a national incentive, because governments reap the benefits of prevention,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re paying for dialysis, or when dialysis is unavailable, people will die, unfortunately. So we have met with several presidents, vice presidents, ministers of health and ministers of finance who are sort of our champions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just a Phone<\/p>\n
Viscomi spoke about the ability to really scale up solutions and applications with AI in an age of digital progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s amazing \u2026 the wonders of technology with point of care testing and with digital platforms,\u201d he said. \u201cReally, all you need is a cell phone and a cellular signal.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, he did point out that in some ways, you need a support system for these initiatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we think about being successful at this, it’s not just AI,\u201d he added. \u201cIt’s not just point of care testing. You’re talking about the government being behind it, the people on the ground being willing to understand it and then enact it, (with) patient agency and having people understand why it is that they need these point of care diagnostics.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Value of This Work<\/p>\n
Later, Viscomi provided a value statement around what Carna has been doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s probably no other group of diseases that’s as big a return on investment, from a health economics perspective,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery dollar in prevention saves $45 in healthcare savings.\u201d<\/p>\n
That, in turn, he suggested, has led to a vibrant source of funding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve been fortunate with investors that have, in the last few years, seen the return on your investment,\u201d he noted. \u201cIt\u2019s been challenging, because population health is generally not one that investors have gravitated towards, but I think that this grouping of diseases is one that has been attracting investors.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a good overview of how AI is changing this one aspect of medicine today. There\u2019s a lot more going on \u2013 at MIT and elsewhere \u2013 so stay tuned, as 2026 commences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kidney with biology and health care concept, 3d rendering. 3D illustration. getty We hear a lot about medical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[365,165706,165707,138198,134,527,111,139,69,165705],"class_list":{"0":"post-302035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-ami-bhatt","10":"tag-carna-health","11":"tag-davos","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-healthcare","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz","17":"tag-salvatore-viscomi"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}