Innovative AI Is Improving Liver Transplant Outcomes

Doctors at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine have joined forces with InformAI to bring new, revolutionary artificial intelligence (AI) technology to liver transplant patients. This development should accelerate the transplant process, bringing hope to thousands waiting to receive the life-saving gift of a new liver.

How Will Medical AI Accelerate Liver Transplant Processes?

According to InformAI CEO Jim Havelka, a predictor tool powered by AI will make it possible for doctors to streamline 30 years of data on transplant patients, filter data on quality of donated organs and general donor health, and organize information on patients who have yet to receive a transplant.

Havelka's vision is that the new device will function as a surgeon’s assistant in matching donors to patients.

When Can We Expect To See This New Technology?

Currently, InformAI is running initial iterations of the AI programming with a base model in hopes of soon performing a preliminary evaluation in a clinical setting.

According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), this groundbreaking medical AI technology could help over 113,000 Americans in need of organs, of whom 95% are seeking to meet liver or kidney transplant criteria. Only second to kidneys, livers are the most implanted organs.

John Vierling, MD, gastroenterologist at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, looks forward to the breadth of data offered by the technology.

“We are poised with the opportunity to utilize not only the 300 or more variables within UNOS but ultimately to incorporate even greater numbers of variables that are available in electronic databases which we use for patient care now.”

- Dr. John Vierling

Will Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Replace Doctors?

Abbas Rana, MD, an experienced transplant surgeon at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, explains how the technology can assist with medical decision-making.

“We envision using AI to help the clinician decide. Usually, it is a team — the surgeon with the medical doctor and the hepatologist working in conjunction when they get a certain organ offering for a certain organ recipient. The organ may be marginal — what are the chances they will get a better organ? What are the chances they will survive after you give them this particular organ?”

- Dr. Abbas Rana

Rana performs many liver and kidney transplants each year and is hopeful that this new technology will be a significant upgrade from the current tools at his disposal.

The Liver Transplant Program at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, in collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine, offers the best possible patient experience for liver transplants and complex liver care. Speak with a liver transplant representative today.

Sources:

TMC | Baylor College of Medicine is experimenting with AI to improve liver transplant outcomes

Inform AI