British researchers have created an artificial intelligence tool that can identify people at risk of serious heart conditions before symptoms appear. The breakthrough could potentially prevent thousands of strokes.
The AI system, developed by scientists at the University of Leeds and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, analyses electronic health records to identify signs of atrial fibrillation (AF), a condition in which the heart beats irregularly and abnormally fast.
The tool examines patient data including age, gender, ethnicity and existing medical conditions (such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease) to calculate the risk.
According to sources, the algorithm was trained using the medical records of 2.1 million people and validated with an additional 10 million records.
