W&M, industry partnership leverages AI to support patients with chronic conditions

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - March 6, 2024 - PRLog -- William & Mary data scientist Haipeng Chen believes in AI for social good. So, he is using his expertise to help deliver personalized and more accessible health care to patients with chronic conditions.

Chen is leading a partnership between William & Mary and the health care technology company Generated Health. He will develop synthetic patient data to help train a more autonomous version of the company's digital nurse, "Florence."

"If we can have an AI system that can deliver automated, personalized management of patients, then we will relieve some of the growing pressures," said Chen.

The contract with Generated Health will start July 1 this year: This partnership is part of a growing portfolio of externally funded data science research at William & Mary. The data science program has attracted over $2 million in research funding last year and is now extending its scope with projects supported by federal agencies and the private sector.

"As the disciplinary home of AI on campus, the data science unit is particularly interested in studying AI solutions as they impact the world," said Professor Anthony Stefanidis,  program director.

The data science program will be part of a proposed new school at William & Mary, that will expand among other things the university's focus on data fluency and data-intensive research.

AI for the benefit of patients

According to Generated Health, the digital nurse Florence has already managed over 25 million clinical conversations, delivering a better patient experience and improved clinical outcomes.

Chen will now develop an AI diffusion model simulating real patient behavior, which will be used to train the nurse model combining generative AI and reinforcement learning.

The goal is developing a next-generation digital nurse with the ability to take effective decisions within a set of clinical rules and protocols eliminating the risk for hallucination.

According to Chen, one advantage of applying AI to the medical domain is freeing up clinicians' time, helping alleviate the impact of workforce shortages in health care across the nation – currently estimated at 200,000 among nurses and 124,000 among physicians by the 2030s. Also, he sees AI as a support tool for auxiliary health care workers, helping remove barriers and create job opportunities.

"I would be excited to see this system benefiting tens of thousands or even millions of patients around the world – because that's one of the end goals for researchers in AI for social good," said Chen.

Full release: https://news.wm.edu/2024/03/06/wm-industry-partnership-leverages-ai-to-support-patients-with-chronic-conditions/