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

Could this AI technique be the solution to the silent epidemic?

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

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are now an epidemic.

Polypharmacy, commonly defined as the regular use of at least five medications, is common among older adults and younger at-risk populations. It increases the risk of adverse drug reactions, drug-induced hospitalization, and death. Adverse drug reactions include a range of unintended and harmful effects resulting from the use of drugs. These reactions can occur due to a variety of factors, including individual genetics, drug interactions, and underlying health conditions.

As the number of medications 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 drug event; when a patient takes more than 8 medications, that number can reach 82%.

Adverse Drug Reaction Scale

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

Previous attempts to tackle this issue lacked essential personalization and scalability due to technical and human limitations, she says. Comprehensive medication reviews, usually performed by pharmacists, assess the effectiveness of a patient’s medication as well as the risks associated with the medication. Comprehensive drug reviews can reduce the risks of ADRs and adverse drug-related outcomes, but this complex, manual, and lengthy 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 between influencing factors such as patient health conditions, medical history, and demographics, resulting in overlooked drug risks and many false-positive alerts that they are usually rejected by doctors.

In order to pinpoint drug-related risks and provide safer and more effective drug treatment, we must look at patients holistically, she explains. Our demographics, medications, medical history, lifestyle, and even lab results affect our risks for ADD. There is no one-size-fits-all in medication, and two patients taking the exact same medication may be exposed to different drug-related risks and experience different outcomes.

Dr. Nahlieli, who has decades of drug-related research experience, is among the leading experts on 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 meeting high clinical standards.

With the understanding that millions of patients suffer from drug-related treatments associated with polypharmacy, she went on a mission to augment her work through technology. Recognizing the impact that AI-based technologies could have on the personalization and automation of comprehensive drug reviews, she collaborated with technology and AI experts Avishai Ben-Tovim and Yuval Kalev to design technology that democratizes access to an optimized drug treatment and prevents drug-related morbidity and mortality.

We were able to generate the first multi-layered, dedicated and coherent patient risk analysis system in polypharmacy that can handle these complex cases and generate accurate clinical recommendations for treatment optimization and risk mitigation, she says. Our medication management platform automatically conducts comprehensive drug-related 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 to reduce risks.

Some healthcare organizations are now starting to adopt the MDIs medication management platform, but “it is not yet in widespread use. Prominent organizations such as healthcare payers tend to approach new technologies with caution and hesitation. We have dedicated the last two years to establishing validation of results through collaborations with prominent healthcare organizations. In addition, we have developed the ability to provide clinical and financial projections for our solution even before entering into a formal contract, with no prior commitment. Dr. Nahlieli adds that their automated drug risk analysis and autonomous clinical referral 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 increasing efforts in the field of ADR prevention in the last decade, it could be difficult to increase the impact without the appropriate technology. We are seeing an increase in drug-related hospitalizations and death 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 patients’ medications against their risks; unfortunately, this is not always an easy or straightforward task. Studies show that every drug we add to a patient’s drug list increases the risk of an adverse drug event by 7-10%, so we need to be careful. A comprehensive patient medication review is critical to identifying drug-related risks before they become a dangerous issue. 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. Prescribing, which is more common today, means adjusting medications to the minimum effective dose or stopping them when the patient’s health changes in such a way that the drug burden or potential for harm outweighs the benefits of taking the medication. We encourage wider application of this important process.

We encourage people to closely observe the transformation taking place in this industry and address this urgent issue, which affects millions of people 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.