https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/07/220721132009.htm

"It is the first instance where AI is implemented at the bedside, used by thousands of providers, and where we're seeing lives saved," said Suchi Saria, founding research director of the Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare at Johns Hopkins and lead author of the studies, which evaluated more than a half million patients over two years. "This is an extraordinary leap that will save thousands of sepsis patients annually. And the approach is now being applied to improve outcomes in other important problem areas beyond sepsis." Sepsis occurs when an infection triggers a chain reaction throughout the body. Inflammation can lead to blood clots and leaking blood vessels, and ultimately can cause organ damage or organ failure. About 1.7 million adults develop sepsis every year in the United States and more than 250,000 of them die.

Sepsis is easy to miss since symptoms such as fever and confusion are common in other conditions, Saria said. The faster it's caught, the better a patient's chances for survival. "One of the most effective ways of improving outcomes is early detection and giving the right treatments in a timely way, but historically this has been a difficult challenge due to lack of systems for accurate early identification," said Saria, who directs the Machine Learning and Healthcare Lab at Johns Hopkins.