A potential solution to the fourth leading cause of death in the US

Could this artificial intelligence technique be the solution to the silent epidemic?

In health care, certain challenges remain hidden from the spotlight: however, when that challenge is the fourth leading cause of death in the country, leads to 35% of hospital admissions and costs $528 billion annually, an urgent solution should be found. top priority.

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are now an epidemic.

Polypharmacy, usually defined as the regular use of at least five medications, is common in older adults and younger at-risk populations. It increases the risk of adverse drug reactions, drug-related hospitalizations, and death. Adverse drug reactions include a number of unwanted and harmful effects that arise from the use of drugs. These reactions can occur due to a variety of factors, including individual genetics, drug interactions, and underlying medical conditions.

As the number of drugs taken increases, the risk of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) increases exponentially. A patient taking 5 or more medications has a 58% chance of experiencing an adverse event; when a patient takes more than 8 drugs, that number can reach 82%.

Adverse Drug Reaction Scale

Dr. Dorit Dil Nahlieli is the co-founder of MDI Health, a medication management solution that addresses this epidemic using artificial intelligence. We’ve used artificial intelligence to personalize and scale high-quality drug therapy. Our revolutionary technology empowers healthcare organizations (such as payers and health systems) to improve the quality of drug therapy and reach, quantify clinical and financial impact, and reduce the total cost of care.

Previous attempts to tackle this problem lacked essential personalization and scalability due to technical and human limitations, she says. Comprehensive drug reviews, usually done by pharmacists, assess the effectiveness of the drugs for patients as well as the risks associated with the drug. Comprehensive drug reviews can reduce the risk of drug-related adverse reactions and adverse outcomes, but this complex, manual, and time-consuming process limits its widespread use and access. Computerized solutions include clinical decision support software that addresses a narrow view of the problem. Common clinical decision support software includes drug-drug interaction systems that do not distinguish influencing factors such as patient health status, medical history, and demographics, leading to overlooked drug risks and many false-positive alerts that are largely dismissed by clinicians.

To accurately determine the risks associated with drugs and ensure safer and more effective drug treatment, we need to look at patients holistically, she explains. Our demographics, medications, medical history, lifestyle, and even lab results all affect our risk of adverse reactions. There is no one-size-fits-all drug, and two patients taking exactly the same drugs may be exposed to different drug-related risks and experience different outcomes.

Dr. Nahlieli, who has decades of drug research experience, is among the leading experts in drug safety. She realized that there was little access to comprehensive medication management programs that optimized medication use. After countless hours of manual drug analysis, she was unable to find a solution that actually reduced analysis time while adhering to high clinical standards.

Realizing that millions of patients suffer from treatments associated with polypharmacy, she embarked on a mission to expand her work through technology. Recognizing the impact that AI-based technologies can have on personalizing and automating comprehensive drug reviews, she partnered with technology and AI experts Avishai Ben-Tovim and Yuval Kalev to design technology that democratizes access to optimized drug treatment and prevents morbidity and mortality .

We were able to generate the first multi-layered, dedicated and coherent risk analysis system for patients with polypharmacy that could handle these complex cases and create accurate clinical recommendations to optimize treatment and mitigate risk, she says. Our medication management platform automatically performs comprehensive medication risk analysis for the entire population, helping clinical teams reach the entire at-risk population. Our algorithms analyze thousands of pharmacological and medical parameters for each patient, including member demographics, medication and medical history, medical conditions and laboratory results, allowing us to identify precise and immediate health risks. They then generate evidence-based clinical recommendations for risk reduction.

Some healthcare organizations are now beginning to adopt a medication management platform for MDI, but “it’s not yet in widespread use. Prominent organizations such as healthcare providers tend to approach new technologies with caution and hesitation. We have devoted the past two years to establishing validation of results through cooperation with prominent health organizations. In addition, we have developed the ability to provide clinical and financial projections for our solution even before entering into a formal agreement, without prior commitment. Dr. Nahlieli adds that their automated drug risk analysis and autonomous clinical recommendation capabilities have now proven effective in saving pharmacists countless hours of manual work, enabling them to reach more members than ever before, while maintaining high clinical standards.

Despite the increased efforts in the field of prevention of adverse reactions in the last decade, it may be difficult to measure the impact without the appropriate technology. We are seeing an increase in drug-related hospitalizations and mortality rates, and we know that a large proportion of these cases are avoidable. Medicines can cure us or make us sick, depending on how we use them. The key is to weigh the benefits of medicines for patients against the risks; unfortunately, this is not always an easy or simple task. Studies show that every drug we add to the drug list increases the risk of side effects by 7-10%, so we have to be careful. A comprehensive patient medication review is critical to identify drug-related risks before they become a dangerous problem. We recommend that patients with chronic conditions undergo a comprehensive medication review at least once a year.

Less is sometimes more, especially when treating patients with polypharmacy, she adds. Deprescribing, which is increasingly common today, means adjusting medications to the minimum effective dose or stopping them when the patient’s medical condition changes in such a way that the burden of medication or potential harm outweighs the benefits of taking the medication. We encourage wider implementation of this important process.

We encourage people to closely monitor the transformation taking place in this industry and to address this pressing issue, which affects millions annually. This silent epidemic can be significantly mitigated by adopting innovative technologies; We hope that all patients will soon have access to the safest and most effective personalized drug treatment, she concludes.