Sorting out AI, ML, DL, and NLP

The alphabet soup of acronyms in the world Artificial Intelligence. What are they? What do they mean? What is the difference between them? This is our ongoing reporting on AI and how it is being integrated into healthcare technology. We are seeking out the thought leaders and innovations that are moving the needle forward using artificial intelligence. Read more posts on Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare.

Follow the hashtag #AIinHealthcare.

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On CTO Talk, technology expert Matt Ferrari discusses the issues, challenges, and opportunities transforming healthcare technology today, all from the CTO point of view. Tune in because when CTOs talk, health IT listens. On this episode, Matt’s guest is Dave MacCutcheon the COO of InfoBionic about patient engagement and transformation in the age of AI.

In the News

Novant Health Selects KenSci’s AI Platform to Deliver Better In-Patient Experiences
Novant Health (@NovantHealth) announced a partnership with KenSci (@KenSci) to implement the company’s AI-based predictive system of insights platform. KenSci will help Novant Health streamline operational efficiencies within the medical centers and improve patients’ overall experiences by effectively informing care teams of patient status when and where it’s most needed. The platform will help Novant Health reduce variations in length of stay and readmissions, as well as dramatically improve patient flow in the emergency department, which will positively impact both inpatient census and patient satisfaction.

Clare Medical Develops AI Based Platform To Predict 30 Day Hospital Admissions
Clare Medical of New Jersey (@GetClare), a provider of in-home comprehensive medical care to seniors, announced the validation of a novel, proprietary Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based diagnostic tool to accurately predict, within an error range of only 3%, the likelihood of patients requiring admission to a hospital within 30 days. The data it generates can be deployed to avoid hospital admissions and reduce hospital and emergency room utilization, which are major costs to the healthcare system.

Eko and Mayo Clinic Prove Heart Failure is Detectable at Point of Care Using ECG-Enabled Stethoscope
On November 16 at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2019, Eko (@Eko_Health), a digital health company applying artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in the fight against heart disease, presented results in collaboration with Mayo Clinic demonstrating the use of the DUO digital stethoscope as a heart failure screening tool. When tested on 100 patients, the DUO combined with an AI model was able to detect ejection fraction < 35% with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.90, which is comparable to previously published research in Nature Medicine.

Introducing Well: A Platform To Engage And Improve Employee Health
Well Dot, Inc. (@getwellrewarded), a company which has created a consumer platform to engage individuals in the advancement of their health, announced its formation. The Well platform applies a proprietary, AI-driven “health engine” that leverages clinical and consumer data to continuously calibrate and customize its engagement with members to help them tackle their health goals. Well is led by a team of executives with deep expertise in healthcare, consumer marketing, technology, artificial intelligence and customer engagement.

AI-Powered Coding Solutions Reducing Costs and Ensuring Appropriate Quality of Care in the Dash to Value-Based Care, Reports Black Book Survey
The healthcare industry is at the crossroads of widespread adoption of VBC models in a consumerism ecosystem along with increasingly stringent regulation, accurate documentation has become the key driver of hospital revenue systems. Computer assisted coding (CAC) is a comprehensive technology that includes the amalgamation of various facets of artificial intelligence and natural language processing where CAC is capable of scrutinizing and interpreting unstructured clinician notes. The rigorous task of extracting identified data from documents to fit into established systems is no longer an issue. Read the press release from Black Book (@blackbookpolls).

BioSymetrics Launches Augusta Architect for Faster Data Pre-Processing and Model Building Integration
BioSymetrics Inc. (@biosymetrics), a biomedical artificial intelligence (AI) company, announced the release and general availability of the newest workflow component of its Augusta software platform, Augusta Architect. Augusta is the first biomedical-specific machine learning (ML) framework on the market.

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The Basics and Resources

From the leading text book around the world, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach.

Artificial Intelligence is composed of six different disciplines:

  1. Natural Language Processing to enable it to communicate successfully in English
  2. Knowledge Representation to store what it knows or hears
  3. Automated Reasoning to use the stored information to answer questions and to draw new conclusions
  4. Machine Learning to adapt to new circumstances and to detect and extrapolate patterns
  5. Computer Vision to perceive objects
  6. Robotics to manipulate objects and move about

To build a generally intelligent agent, you need machine learning in addition to the other aspects mentioned above.

Machine Learning is roughly the science of prediction. Given certain knowns (features), you wish to predict some unknowns (targets). The unknown could be structured (e.g. numeric) or unstructured (e.g. a string response).

Deep Learning is a sub field of machine learning where concepts are learned hierarchically. The simplest concepts emerge first, followed by more complicated concepts that build on the simpler ones. Usually, this leads to a simple layered hierarchy of concepts.

Optum Resource Library

Natural Language Processing: AI with an ROI
Health care providers need to see a return on any analytic investment they make. Natural language processing (NLP) is one way AI can help providers convert the potential within their health data into quality improvement and cost savings. Natural language processing is an AI technology that actually makes sense for health care.

IBM Analytics

Navigating the A.I. and Cognitive Maze – If you work in the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cognitive Computing, you might use buzz words and phrases which to others might be perceived as confusing jargon. This article attempts to explain what these terms mean, how they relate to one other and where they all fit along the AI and cognitive time continuum. I include a glossary of my top 20 useful AI/cognitive terms — and advice on getting started on your AI/cognitive journey.