Technology and healthcare go hand-in-hand to supplement diagnoses and treatments for many medical conditions, and artificial intelligence is among the advances in neuroscience now in use at Abrazo West Campus.

Abrazo West Campus was the first hospital in the greater Phoenix area to offer the Ceribell point-of-care EEG system that uses AI to help quickly detect non-convulsive seizures, a press release explained.

The hospital also uses a tool called Viz.ai to assist the medical team in diagnosing and determining an appropriate treatment for patients suspected of experiencing a stroke.

“Abrazo West continues to invest in advanced technology for our physicians to use in the diagnosis and treatment of strokes and seizures,” Abrazo West Campus CEO Hans Driessnack stated in the release.

Powered by machine learning AI and typically used in the ICU or Emergency Department, the first use of Ceribell technology at Abrazo West Campus was on an ER patient who was having an active seizure not visible to the eye.

When equipped with Clarity, a machine learning algorithm, the Ceribell system can interpret EEG signals and will provide audible and visual alerts when continuous seizures indicating status epilepticus are detected, according to its manufacturer, according to the release.  

“When clinically suspected, Ceribell bands can be applied to the patient’s head at bedside and the AI can detect seizure right away with very high clinical accuracy,” Dr. Sushant Kale, medical director for Neurology and Stroke at Abrazo West Campus, stated in the release.

“This enables the bedside clinician to treat the patient hours before they otherwise would have done it with traditional setup,” Kale continued. 

The EEG is also available for neurologists to see in real-time on a HIPAA-compliant smartphone app.

Viz.ai is currently used for large vessel blockage notification at Abrazo West Campus. In fact, all Abrazo hospitals and micro-hospitals in the Valley are set up to use this AI technology for diagnosing stroke, Kale explained in the release.

“When a patient presents to the ER with stroke-like symptoms or suspicion of stroke, a brain scan is immediately ordered. Viz.ai uses AI to analyze the scan images for findings suggestive of a large vessel occlusion and notifies the stroke team via the Viz mobile app,” Kale stated.

The team includes a radiologist, neurologists, neurointerventionalists, neurosurgeons, nurses and other essential team members. The team reviews the images, confirms the diagnosis, and communicates via the Viz mobile app. 

They can determine if the patient needs a thrombectomy and quickly get things in motion for the patient, explained Kale.

“These systems add to our ability to provide timely identification and intervention for individuals with neurological concerns. During stroke awareness month we are excited to celebrate this technology and its impact as well as raise awareness with the community of how to identify the early signs of a stroke. Early identification and action is critical for better outcomes,” Driessnack stated.