Artificial Intelligence and Other Cool Stuff at Bryan was the presentation to Lincoln South Rotary Club on June 12, 2020 by the president and CEO of Bryan Health - Russ Gronewold.
Russ started by providing an overview of actions needed because of COVID-19. With quick action they were able to put virtual waiting rooms in place and provide testing.
He indicated that ventilators were not a problem here in Lincoln because Bryan was one of the first in the nation to convert anesthesia machines into ventilators; they then provided training for others to use.
They set up over 100 negative air flow rooms which could be used for isolating patients, keeping the virus from spreading to other rooms. They are in the process of converting some of those rooms back but know the process so could change them back to negative air flow if needed. He commented that they do not like to have too many negative air flow rooms because of the problems it causes for cooling the rooms.
Russ then changed the topic to artificial intelligence (AI). He said AI is many things but basically it is machine learning - using algorithms to review and analyze large quantities of data. It can help the healthcare providers pinpoint and issue - focus on most critical findings.
Bryan is at the forefront of AI development in healthcare. They recently earned a worldwide award as a partner with Lincoln based Ocuvera. They won the 2020 Microsoft Health Innovation Award for the development of a system to help prevent patient falls in hospitals.
Russ explained that falls are common because we are dealing with people who are already physically compromised and we are compounding that due to medicines and anesthesia. They developed a camera and filmed 200,000 hours of patient activities leading up to a fall. With that data they are now able to predict a fall.
With some patients, they would normally need someone sit and watch the patient 24/7. But, with this camera, when the fall is predicted the nurse can be notified and can then tend to the patient. Falls were reduced significantly but they are also able to keep more healthcare workers giving live patient care and not just sitting and watching.
Bryan has an Artificial Neural Network. This has been a tremendous help to medical scientists in reviewing blood cells. Red and White blood cells are studied to determine iron deficiencies, heart disease, sickle cell disease, etc. The AI is able to categorize the blood cells and point out the ones they should focus on. Without AI they essentially have to look at every individual blood cell to analyze it.
AIdoc is a better way to scan. With CT scans the results are shown in "slices" - up to 250 views. Currently used primarily with heart, chest and spine scans. Rather than going through all of the slices manually, using AIdoc can categorize the "slices", analyze the medical information and, along with patient data can prioritize what needs to be read more thoroughly.
Russ emphasized that none of this is done in place of a doctor, but it can greatly assist medical professionals with effective and efficient analysis.
He also introduced us to some upcoming projects. In Lincoln they are planning a Comprehensive Cancer Care Center. In Grand Island and Central City they are partnering for new and expanded medical clinics and hospitals.