A House Call from Dr. AI -- Using Predictive Tech in Healthcare

For starters, there’s IBM Watson, a regular crowd pleaser at SXSW. Last year, they launched their health-focused unit, called IBM Watson Health. And recently, they announced a slew of new partnerships -- including one with Medtronic, a medical device and technology company. Watson will power a predictive alert for diabetics that can warn of impending hypoglycemic attacks, up to three hours before they happen. This can help both patients and doctors get on top of potentially damaging complications for this disease.

Google has been charging at healthcare recently too. Last month, they announced the launch of DeepMind Health, a project to develop apps for medical professionals that help identify patients at risk for certain diseases. They’re focusing first on kidney injuries. Google’s investing a lot in this space, so expect more from them over the coming year.

Finally, we’re also seeing artificial intelligence company Sentient play in the health space too. The company has developed and tested an AI “nurse” to detect sepsis, a bacterial infection which is the number one killer in the ICU. To build their nurse, Sentient collected blood pressure data from 6,000 patients to spot patterns. They were then able to predict sepsis infection 30 minutes ahead of time, to an accuracy rate of 91%.

For the healthcare space, it’s looking like predictive analytics will revolutionize how hospitals, doctors, and patients manage diseases and health outcomes. For brands, it’s important to be able to adapt to this kind of fast-changing technology.

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