From data deluge to diagnostic clarity: How AI is transforming diagnostics in cardiology and beyond

The healthcare industry is grappling with a data volume crisis, and the signs are everywhere—from the patient bedside to the surgical suite, the clinical lab, and beyond. Healthcare data is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36% through 2025, yet according to one study, 80% of this data remains unstructured and underutilized.¹

This data holds immense potential to enhance diagnostic efficiency and precision, and, by extension, clinical outcomes. But rapid and comprehensive interpretation is a key obstacle to making this potential a reality.

This article explores how artificial intelligence (AI) can efficiently manage today’s data deluge, unearth meaningful insights, improve diagnostic accuracy, and unleash a new era of agile care. We’ll use virtual cardiac telemetry data as one example, but the benefits of AI have the power to profoundly and universally transform diagnostics across disciplines.

Four ways AI enhances diagnostics

AI unleashes a multitude of diagnostic benefits, but at its core, AI is about transforming massive datasets into instant insights. What was previously untenable for a human analyst is easy work for AI—whose capacity continues to scale upward in commensuration with its computing power.

Let's review some of the benefits of AI-powered diagnostics:

Timeliness

Because of the immediacy with which AI can analyze data and deliver insights to clinicians, one of its chief benefits is the timeliness with which it enables diagnosis. Diagnostic timeliness lowers costs and has the potential to dramatically improve outcomes by preventing delays that may result in complications or death.² This is even more critical in the cardiac specialty, where conditions are often only diagnosed once they progress. 

Personalization of care

Studies suggest that the personalization of cardiac care has the potential to be truly transformative, particularly given the uniqueness of each patient's heartbeat.³ By discerning the subtle variations of each patient’s cardiac data and comparing data across populations, AI enables cardiologists to develop more tailored care plans and pursue truly customized care. 

Expanded indicators

In cardiac diagnostics, primary indicators include heart rate and rhythm, electrocardiogram (ECG) alterations, heart rate variability, and specific cardiac events. AI expands this list to include new indicators, like subtle or complex arrhythmias, stress and recovery metrics, subclinical conditions, early warning signs, and even predictive analytics. This expanded diagnostic view enables new possibilities for cardiologists.

Continuous improvement

Today’s standard of care doesn’t fully prevent cardiac events,⁴ making continuous improvement an essential aspect of pursuing the milestone of zero avoidable cardiac deaths. Because machine learning algorithms continuously learn and sharpen diagnostic accuracy over time, they have the potential to uncover new correlations that hold the key to more effective cardiac event prevention. 

AI-enabled diagnostics and the new standard of care

AI-enabled diagnostics that use virtual cardiac telemetry data powerfully illuminate cardiac indicators, hastening and sharpening diagnoses. Even more powerfully, the actionable insights provided by AI-powered virtual telemetry can be combined with other indicators, including those in the clinical lab, to enhance cardiac care in ways cardiologists never dreamt possible.

References

1. Kong HJ. Managing unstructured big data in healthcare system. Healthc Inform Res. 2019;25(1):1. doi:10.4258/hir.2019.25.1.1.
2. Lee ES, Vedanthan R, Jeemon P, et al. Quality improvement in cardiovascular disease care. In: Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition (Volume 5): Cardiovascular, Respiratory, and Related Disorders. The World Bank; 2017:327-348.
3. Lee MS, Flammer AJ, Lerman LO, Lerman A. Personalized medicine in cardiovascular diseases. Korean Circ J. 2012;42(9):583. doi:10.4070/kcj.2012.42.9.583.
4. Terry K. What’s behind major rise in heart failure deaths? WebMD. Published May 3, 2024. Accessed August 19, 2024. http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/heart-failure/news/20240503/heart-failure-mortality-rate-continues-to-rise.