anderbilt Health researchers have received a grant from Eli Lilly and Company, a multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Indianapolis, to build an artificial intelligence (AI) tool within the electronic health record system (EHR) to get patients with Alzheimer’s disease to treatment faster. The computer project is designed for transferability to other health systems.<\/p>\n
Newly approved monoclonal antibody therapies are being used to slow early stages of cognitive decline<\/strong> in amyloid-positive Alzheimer’s patients. As these drugs have become available, patients who qualify often wait weeks \u2014 moving through referrals, specialist evaluation, brain imaging<\/strong> and insurance authorization \u2014 before receiving a first infusion. To help <\/a>speed the process, the team will build an AI triage agent embedded in Vanderbilt Health’s EHR. The 18-month, $600,000 project targets the referral from primary care or geriatrics to neurology.<\/p>\n As a clinician enters a referral for cognitive concern, the AI triage agent will summarize the relevant chart information, flag missing details that commonly slow evaluation, and recommend whether a case should be routed as priority or standard. Clinicians will retain the ability to accept, <\/a>edit or override every recommendation.<\/p>\n “By the time a patient reaches our clinic, the clock has often been running for weeks,” said Amalia Peterson<\/u><\/a>, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurology and a co-principal investigator on the project. “This tool will be designed to make sure that when a referral arrives, we already have the information we need to act quickly. It doesn’t replace clinical judgment, but it will remove a lot of the friction that keeps patients waiting.<\/strong>”<\/p>\n The project is led by principal investigator You Chen<\/u><\/a>, PhD, Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics, with co-principal investigators Peterson and geriatrician Sean Huang<\/u><\/a>, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Informatics.<\/p>\n