How AI is helping N.L. researchers sift through your health data — and come up with better treatments

It sometimes seems that artificial intelligence can do it all. It can generate images, become your new best friend, and it can improve your health care, too, according to some Memorial University researchers.

Michelle Ploughman, who creates and tests treatments for people with stroke and multiple sclerosis, has been using artificial intelligence to study how people walk. 

In a recent interview with CBC Radio's The St. John's Morning Show, she said new measures are needed to test new treatments.

Ploughman uses AI-powered equipment to explore walking patterns.

"You can get a sense of the way their body's moving, their toes… it's more than just speed," Ploughman said. 

People who have multiple sclerosis, for example, have distinct walking patterns that distinguish them from others. 

Instead of using a regular stopwatch to measure the distance walked per second, Ploughman's research employs a walkway with 10,000 sensors that measure the wearer's gait.

"There's no way a human could analyze all that data," said Ploughman. "It's impossible."

Using machine learning, Ploughman and her team processes data to look at patterns more clearly. Through this, she learned that the way people with multiple sclerosis lay their feet on pressure sensors is "a little bit different" than healthy people. 

Ploughman says artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming a popular research tool around the world.

"We're in a stage of research where we have to implement AI," said Ploughman. "So, we're already doing it, trying to figure it out, to make things easier for us so we can get our answers faster."

Into the emergency room

LISTEN | MUN doctors on how they use artificial intelligence to advance health care: 

St John's Morning Show9:06MUN has been ranked No.1 nationally for their use of AI to advance research

Memorial University is getting attention in its use of AI to accelerate research. Dr. Michelle Ploughman and Dr. Chris Patey are two of the people who have used AI to further their work. They joined us in studio this morning.

It's the same for family practice, says doctor Christopher Patey.

Patey is an assistant professor at Memorial University, and also works in the Carbonear General Hospital's emergency department. He said artificial intelligence is already being used in Newfoundland and Labrador hospitals to assess questions that are asked in triage and determine how quickly patients should be seen.

"We can use those processes to help you get through our system a little bit more [effectively]," said Patey.  

Patey said artificial intelligence is not as integrated in health care as it should be, and that it's time to adapt and look into the developing technology. He said with the human resources issues in the health-care system, anything that can help with hands-on care is welcome. 

"We're using [AI] in health care now... saving hours of work when it comes to processing information," Patey said.

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