Artificial Intelligence Benefiting Older Adults in a Host of New Ways

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now transforming the lives of adults 50 and older. Engineers are harnessing AI and wireless technology to unobtrusively monitor older adults in their living spaces and provide early detection of emerging health problems.

A new system, built by researchers at the University of Waterloo, follows an individual’s activities accurately and continuously as it gathers vital information without the need for a wearable device and alerts medical experts to the need to step in and provide help.

Dr. George Shaker, an adjunct associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Waterloo, England, said radio wave systems enabled by machine learning (ML) and AI can be reliably used in homes, hospitals, and long-term care facilities. “An added bonus is that the system can alert healthcare workers to sudden falls, without the need for privacy-intrusive devices such as cameras,” Dr. Shaker.

The new system represents a major step forward and involves a wireless transmitter sending low-power waveforms across an interior space. As the waveforms bounce off different objects and the people being monitored, they are able to capture and process information that goes into an AI engine, which deciphers the processes waves for detection and monitoring applications.

The system, which employs extremely low-power radar technology, can be mounted simply on a ceiling or by a wall and doesn’t suffer the drawbacks of wearable monitoring devices, which can be uncomfortable and require frequent battery charging. “Using our wireless technology in homes and long-term care homes can effectively monitor various activities such as sleeping, watching TV, eating, and the frequency of bathroom use,” Dr. Shaker said.

The system can alert your doctor to a general decline in mobility, an increased likelihood of falling, the possibility of a urinary tract infection, and the onset of several other medical conditions. The system is already in place in several long-term care facilities.

AI Changing the Management of Prostate Cancer

The conventional approach to diagnosing prostate cancer involves measuring prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, conducting a physical examination, and ultimately performing a biopsy. However, this method has its limitations. AI now has demonstrated promising capabilities as an adjunct diagnostic tool in both magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and digital pathology, enabling enhanced visualization and diagnosis of prostate cancer. Implementing this system has the potential to minimize follow-up appointments, decrease patient expenses, and reduce the need for invasive treatments.

“Artificial intelligence (AI) in oncology is swiftly progressing towards a phase of clinical applicability. Notably, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved several imaging analysis software tools for automated cancer detection,” said Dr. Himanshu Arora, an assistant professor of urology at the University of Miami Health System, Miami, Florida.

AI will not supplant the expertise of human physicians, radiologists, or pathologists, but it can serve as an invaluable addition to the arsenal of diagnostic and therapeutic resources. This integration will ultimately facilitate a more individualized approach to patient treatment, thereby improving outcomes.

“At present, the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine appears boundless. While it is challenging to envisage a definitive endpoint for its utility, pragmatic implementation remains crucial,” said Dr. Arora. For numerous AI solutions, there is a dearth of adequate training data to support the development of these tools. “It is conceivable that AI could play a pivotal role in predicting therapeutic success, which could ultimately contribute to increased patient survival.”

Making headway in the use of AI in prostate cancer is especially important, given that it is the most common cancer among men and second most common cause of cancer-related death for men in the U.S. “Timely diagnosis and assessment of prognosis are challenges for prostate cancer, and this results in many deaths and increases the risk of disease progression,” said Dr. Arora.

AI for Combating Heart Attacks

Researchers now may be able to predict cardiovascular disease, such as arterial fibrillation and heart failure, in patients by using AI to examine the genes in their DNA. Experts at Rutgers University in New Jersey analyzed healthy patients and patients diagnosed with cardiovascular disease and used AI and ML models to investigate the genes known to be associated with the most common manifestations of cardiovascular disease, including atrial fibrillation and heart failure.

They identified a group of genes that were significantly associated with having cardiovascular disease. Researchers also found significant differences among race, gender and age factors based on cardiovascular disease. While age and gender factors correlated to heart failure, age and race factors correlated to atrial fibrillation.

"Timely understanding and precise treatment of cardiovascular disease will ultimately benefit millions of individuals by reducing the high risk for mortality and improving the quality of life," said Zeeshan Ahmed, who is an assistant professor with the Department of Medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

AI Transforming Organ Transplants

Research efforts are underway to use AI to detect organ failure earlier. AI also can be used to determine which early interventions delay the need for a transplant and in some cases prevent the need for one altogether.

Matching organ donors and recipients is complex. There is hope that AI can help improve the matching process. AI an help determine whether a donated organ would make for a successful transplant. A recent Mayo Clinic study demonstrated how an AI-based scoring system could be used to analyze transplanted kidney biopsies to determine inflammation levels. This is vital information that helps indicate the health of the transplanted kidney.

"Transplantation is something that helps patients live longer, but it can be filled with potential complications. We always strive to discover ways to help patients recover on their own and have better quality and quantity of life," says Dr. Rohan Goswami, a transplant cardiologist and director of heart transplant research at the Mayo Clinic in Florida.

The risk of organ rejection is one of the biggest challenges in transplant medicine. Researchers are turning to AI to help identify patients most at risk for organ rejection. A recent Mayo study published in the European Heart Journal found that an electrocardiogram could potentially be used to predict the risk of low-grade rejection for heart transplant patients, potentially without requiring a biopsy. There is hope that these advances also will help prevent transplant patient deaths.

AI could one day be used to help determine how a patient's body reacts to immunosuppression and guide when medications should be adjusted. There is hope that AI may be able to make post-transplant care easier for patients, eliminating the need for routine biopsies and blood draws. One of the great hopes of AI decision tools is that they can help integrate many other tools, such as scans and labs, into a model that provides a fuller picture of the patient, according to Dr. Mark Stegall, a transplant surgeon at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

John Schieszer is an award-winning national journalist and radio and podcast broadcaster of The Medical Minute. He can be reached at medicalminutes@gmail.com.