How Can AI Be Used in Palliative Care?

Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital say AI technology could be used in a hybrid platform that improves how clinicians communicate with patients and their families about serious illnesses and palliative care. In a recent article in NPJ/Digital Medicine, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital say the platform could help care providers with serious illness communication (SIC) by smoothing over what is often a difficult process. But the technology needs to be integrated carefully in a hybrid platform.

Patients with serious illness often experience delayed SIC because clinicians are poor at prognosticating life expectancy for terminally ill patients, usually erring on the side of optimism,” says the January 27 article, authored by Isaac S. Chua and David W. Bates of Brigham and Women’s and Christine S. Ritchie at Mass General. “Moreover, systematic methods to identify patients with palliative care needs are lacking.” SIC is a both complicated and delicate process. Providers first have to determine whether a patient is in need of palliative care services, then talk to that patient and his or her family about everything from life expectancy to end-of-life care.