Dr Google approved AI in Primary Care.

There is much excitement of the role of AI in diagnosing disease, especially as its capabilities are starting to equal and increasingly often surpass the experts, AI is intended to supplement and assist. But that excitement does not extend to AI in Primary Care, where AI is all but absent. Yet it is in Primary care where AI's potential could provide the greatest benefits to Patients, in part by augmenting and extending a clinician's abilities to diagnose.

Recently one of the first AI based device cleared by FDA for use in primary care, was peer criticized for its clinical limitations - it could only diagnose a single disease. Also, peers could not understand how a $18,000 piece of medical equipment that was also needed, that could diagnose a single eye disease condition, be “for-use” in Primary Care. The criticism also extended to the fact that the “autonomous” diagnosis related only to the possibility of this disease beyond its minor presence.

The peers understood that although effective for that one specific disease condition, the patient would be mis-lead into believing everything was “ok”, when they could in reality be suffering from the many other eye related diseases that were not ruled out, not supported by that device.

No matter how clear the disclaimers to that effect, patients simply will never understand that limitation – they want to believe the device has absolute powers!

Specialised single disease diagnostic devices are “dangerous” for use in Primary Care, whether AI based or not. They can be easily misunderstood and misused as they are too specialized, too limited and too expensive to effectively provide widespread screening benefits to potential patients. They don’t provide a comprehensive answer, as expected by patients.

And, in the age of “Dr. Google”, patients believe they are extremely health savvy, sometimes for the good, sometimes not! These internet doctors spread not only generalist health advice, but mainly also fear. It is this fear that drives patients to diagnostic medical devices to provide the medical “truth”. Single or limited first use devices in Primary Care don’t always measure up.

The best but little-known example of a limited diagnosis device which is widely used in Primary is the ECG! Surprised

Don’t be, you’re not alone. Few understand the limitations of ECG, which because of its electrical nature is seriously limited in functionality as it can only detect diseases that have an electrical signature. This means it is limited to about 44% of all common heart diseases, and this only when AI and algorithmically augmented.

This is why most Standards of Care, a cardiologist must “over-read” the ECG before the clinician can discuss it with the patient. Basically, the medical community is admitting that ECG is only effective on less than ½ of all common heart diseases.

No surprise therefore that is has not been adopted for the widespread screening of patients in Primary Care – able to detect only ~44% of all common heart disease, its simply not suitably effective – and that makes it dangerous!

It continues to be used because for the diseases it can detect, it does it really well. But mainly, it continues to be used for lack of a any better device for decades.

Now enter AI in Primary Care, and see a positive example:
Cardio-HART™ or CHART for short, is an AI powered, first-use, non-invasive, diagnostic system that together with the FDA cleared Cardio-TriTest™ device, provides clinicians with a better more complete understanding of a patient’s overall cardiac status - because it can detect and diagnose ~94% of all common heart diseases.

94% is “the” definition of clinical effectiveness, especially for Primary Care. 

Designed essentially for us in Primary Care, Chart outputs a broader range of disease findings and parameters than ECG. CHART provides 64 findings and 167 heart parameters, including all those provided ECG.

No other single diagnostic device in existence today can provide such a wide-ranging scope of cardiac status for use in Primary Care.

With 1 in 3 Americans at risk of heart disease and combined with an aging population, AI can supercharge Primary Care and provide patients with proper CHART.

Dr Google would approve.