Methodist uses AI to flag severe heart valve cases sooner

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Methodist is using an artificial intelligence platform to help identify patients with aortic stenosis, a narrowing heart valve that can lead to heart failure, the hospital said. Doctors at Methodist said the condition can become severe in just a few months.

Patient seen sooner after AI flag

Methodist said a man in his 60s went in for a test for a heart murmur. Registered nurse Cindy Valgora, a structural heart coordinator at Methodist, said he was not scheduled for an appointment for two months until an AI program caught a problem.

“He actually was treated with a surgical aortic valve, he was treated and recovering before he would have ever even been seen in our usual clinic,” Valgora said.

Dr. Jai Parekh, a structural and interventional cardiologist at Methodist Physicians Clinic, said the challenge is finding the condition among intricate test results.

“There are a lot of things which get missed in the details of these echocardiograms,” Parekh said.

What the platform does

Methodist uses an AI platform called egnite CardioCare. The platform does not read the scans.

“It’s just taking the plain language, the English language off of reports, and then categorizing for us so we can reach out to the patients,” Valgora said.

Valgora said the platform sorts patients by severity and flags severe cases for the structural heart team. Staff then take over from there.

“I think it supplements what we do. It never influences our medical decision-making. It never replaces physician judgment,” Parekh said.

Timeline and patient response

Methodist’s new goal is to see flagged patients in one to two weeks and treat them in four to six weeks. The team said that before the program, it took eight to nine weeks from the first visit to treatment.

“Give them a better quality of life before they fall off the cliff,” Parekh said.

Valgora said she makes sure patients know how the AI is used.

“I think once you explain that to patients, they’re like, oh, so that’s how I got in here sooner. And you’re like, yes, yes, that is,” Valgora said.

Methodist said the program has allowed it to see 35% more patients.

“You forget how this quality of life changes and improves, and we can do that sooner than we used to,” Valgora said.

Participation in national initiative

Methodist said it is one of two hospitals in Nebraska taking part in the American Heart Association’s initiative. The hospital said that as the technology expands, it could also help doctors identify patients with other types of heart valve disease.