You\u2019re reading Part 1 of Paying for AI, a series examining how new clinical artificial intelligence tools influence the affordability of health care and patients\u2019 long-term health.<\/p>\n
In a CT scan, coronary artery calcium shows up as distinct, bright pixels. It looks like salt in the pepper of the heart. The more calcium, the higher a patient\u2019s risk of a heart attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Often, a cardiologist looks for those bright spots on purpose: They\u2019ll grab snapshots of the heart between beats, to get the clearest possible view of the coronary arteries. But calcium is also visible on zoomed-out chest CTs that aren\u2019t synchronized with the heart. Every year, patients receive 19 million of those more general scans \u2014 to screen for lung cancer, or investigate a persistent cough \u2014 and an eagle-eyed radiologist can report any incidental calcium they spot.<\/p>\n
But even as heart disease remains the top cause of death in the United States, an estimated 20% to 40% of that incidental calcium goes unreported. \u201cWe need to find more of these patients,\u201d said Ami Bhatt, chair of the Food and Drug Administration\u2019s Digital Health Advisory Committee and chief innovation officer of the American College of Cardiology.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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