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AI in Anesthesia

Hey friends,
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Welcome to todays newsletter! AI is here and it has hopped on a train with no destination 🚂
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A recent British study explored whether assistive artificial intelligence (AI) software could improve non-expert performance in ultrasound images and interpretation for ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia.
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What is non-expert performance?
Based on the context, we can infer that the non-expert performance refers to anesthesia providers who lack extensive experience and expertise in performing ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia (UGRA) techniques.
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For an AI software to function, commands must be given in order to generate an action.
In this study, The AI software (ScanNav) was developed using deep learning on labeled ultrasound images to identify relevant anatomical structures for different peripheral nerve blocks. Basically, they provided common images or examples and integrating them to a database so that the AI software can know what to look for during an actual procedure.
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As a result, the ultrasound scans provided color overlays highlighting key anatomical landmarks, targets, and safety structures on the ultrasound images. With the assistance of the AI software, the non-experts showed improved ability to obtain suitable ultrasound images for performing nerve blocks (90.3% vs 75.1% without AI) and better identification of relevant anatomical structures on those images (88.8% vs 77.4% without AI).
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The article suggests that such AI-assisted technology could potentially increase learning efficiency for non-experts in ultrasound guided regional anesthesia by helping them acquire and interpret ultrasound images without direct expert supervision, thereby expanding the workforce capable of performing core regional anesthesia techniques.
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In summary, by giving the AI software examples of correctly labeled ultrasound anatomy during a training phase, AI could learn to automatically recognize and highlight key structures when shown new unlabeled ultrasound images during actual procedures. Absolutely mind blowing 🤯
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👉🏻 Click the link for the full study ​

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