The New Medicine with AI

Artificial intelligence may improve the accuracy of physicians’ electroencephalogram interpretations.

The New Medicine with AI

Artificial intelligence may improve the accuracy of physicians’ electroencephalogram interpretations.

• A cross-over study compared clinicians’ electroencephalogram (EEG) interpretation accuracy with artificial intelligence (AI) assistance against the same participants without AI assistance.
• The performance of all clinicians was significantly higher with AI assistance as compared to without (71% vs 47%).

Evidence Rating Level: 2 (Good)

Study Rundown

Seizures are serious medical events that increase the risk of permanent disability or death. However, clinical interpretations of seizures with electroencephalography (EEG) are hampered by clinician availability and subjectivity. Barnett and colleagues developed a novel deep-learning algorithm called ProtoPMed-EEG trained on data from 2711 hospitalized patients. The AI model underwent a two-stage, multiuser study with a cohort of clinical practitioners without expertise in machine learning. The clinicians were separated into two groups randomly, with each group given ProtoPMed-EEG at different stages, two weeks apart. Their diagnostic accuracy with and without AI assistance was compared using 100 EEG samples. The study found that mean user diagnostic accuracy was higher with AI assistance for every clinician as compared to without. The mean inter-rater reliability similarly improved. Additionally, most users believed their diagnostic ability improved after completing the stage with AI. Overall, this study demonstrated AI’s ability to assist clinicians in making superior diagnoses and may play future roles in diagnostic assistance and clinical education.

Reference: Artificial intelligence may improve the accuracy of physicians’ electroencephalogram interpretations