Pandemic response training – preplanning

Leadership

Precision Medicine

Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

Bio-metrics

Privacy and Security

Social Determinants of Health

Genetics

Nutrition

Patient Advocacy

Electronic Medical Record

Social Determinants of Health — See Class 2

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

“In the Age of Data, Performance Transparency is the New Norm,” article by Christine K. Cassel, M.D., as stated in a 2016 National Academy of Medicine article: “Research has demonstrated that many of the current public reports make it cognitively burdensome for the audience to understand the data.”

The article continues with: “Today, the task is made easier through automation of benchmarking with artificial intelligence (AI). AI enables a search within a very large space of possibilities, both measures and comparison groups (a similar facility type, regional, national or a custom benchmarking group). Software can answer questions about how each provider is performing over time, how the performance compares to others like it, and what other highly related measures are important to reveal. Automation enables regular, inexpensive updates of performance comparisons, encouraging ongoing consideration of improvement opportunities and achievements.

Digital stethoscopes – Smart stethoscopes

Artificial intelligence to help users position the probe and interpret the images

“Scoping the future” subtitle “High-tech devices may usurp stalwart that relies on ears” by Lindsey Tanner, Chicago Tribune, section 2, page 1 and 2 (October 30, 2019):

Digital stethoscopes can be paired with smartphones to create moving pictures and readouts.  The hand-held ultrasound devices provides the ability to watch images of lub-dubbing hearts on a tablet screen.  The Butterfly iQ device made by Guilford, Connecticut based Butterfly Network Inc. went on the market last year.  An update will include artificial intelligence to help users position the probe and interpret the images. 

Indiana University  medical students in Indianapolis learn stethoscope skills and also get trained in hand-held ultrasound in  program launched there last year by Dr. Paul Wallach, an executive associate dean.  He created a similar program five years ago at the Medical College of Georgia and predicts that within next decade hand held ultrasound devices will become part of the routine physical exam, like the reflex hammer.  He envisions the next generation of physicians wearing “ a stethoscope around the neck and an ultrasound in the pocket.”    

Dr. James Thomas, a cardiologist at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago stated “Some recent studies have shown that graduates in internal medicine and emergency medicine may miss as many of half of murmurs using a stethoscope.”  Northwestern is involved in testing new technology created by Eko, a Berkeley, California based maker of smart stethoscopes.  Eko is developing artificial intelligence algorithms to improve detection of heart murmurs for its devices, using recordings of thousands of heartbeats.  The devices produce a screen message telling the doctor whether the heart sounds are normal or if murmurs are present.