Research

How Big Data Transforms the Insurance Sector

In 2022, the insurance industry made a whopping USD 6 trillion globally - more than the entire economy of big countries like Japan and Germany. A new study, published in The Journal of Finance and Data Science, looked at how technology, especially big data, is shaking things up in insurance. Big data means using a lot of information to make better decisions.

Both Virtual and in-Person Nutrition Visits Help to Lower Cholesterol

Despite an end to the national public health emergency in May 2023, the use of telehealth remains high, with over 20% of American adults taking appointments online.

These visits include video calls with registered dietitian nutritionists, who have a critical role in helping patients take on lifestyle changes through medical nutrition therapy.

AI Offers Promise for Earlier and More Accurate HCC Diagnosis

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of liver cancer. It is a major global health concern with rising rates, particularly in North Africa and East Asia. Although potentially curable in the early stages, HCC often remains undetected until it's too late for effective treatment. This press release announces promising advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology that could revolutionize HCC diagnosis, leading to earlier detection and improved patient outcomes.

Virtual Care Works Best when Patients See their Own Family Doctor

Compared to patients who had a virtual visit with their own family doctor, those who received virtual care from a doctor outside of their family care team were 66 percent more likely to visit the emergency department within seven days, according to new research.

The study, led by researchers at the University Health Network (UHN), Unity Health Toronto, and ICES, also showed that patients receiving virtual care outside of an existing family doctor-patient relationship were 25 percent more likely to have an in-person visit and 88 percent more likely to have another virtual visit within seven days.

AI as Therapeutic Support

The face is a mirror for a person's emotional state. The interpretation of facial expressions as part of psychotherapy or psychotherapeutic research, for example, is a very effective way of characterizing how a person is feeling in that particular moment. Back in the 1970s, psychologist Paul Ekmann developed a standardized coding system to assign basic emotions such as happiness, disgust or sadness to a facial expression in an image or video sequence.

Clinicians could be Fooled by Biased AI, Despite Explanations

AI models in health care are a double-edged sword, with models improving diagnostic decisions for some demographics, but worsening decisions for others when the model has absorbed biased medical data.

Given the very real life and death risks of clinical decision-making, researchers and policymakers are taking steps to ensure AI models are safe, secure and trustworthy - and that their use will lead to improved outcomes.

AI Chatbot Shows Potential as Diagnostic Partner

Physician-investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) compared a chatbot's probabilistic reasoning to that of human clinicians. The findings, published in JAMA Network Open, suggest that artificial intelligence could serve as useful clinical decision support tools for physicians.

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