After an innovative and unique application that incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) and was installed in the networking systems of doctors at the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya set off an alarm that a patient who had just undergone an elective computerized tomography (CT) of his brain suffered from intracranial bleeding. The patient was called and returned to the hospital urgently for treatment that saved his life.
It began when the patient, a man in his 50s from Nahariya who had complained of severe headaches over a prolonged period came to the medical center for a CT scan.
At the end of the examination, Dr. Dan Paz – the director of the medical center’s MRI Institute – received an urgent alert from a new app on his smartphone that raised a real suspicion that the patient was suffering from a cerebral hemorrhage. The app included the patient’s CT scan as well as his medical and personal details.
Paz called the patient who was still in the neighborhood to and urged hi to return immediately to the hospital, where he underwent additional imaging scans from which it emerged that he was suffering from intracranial bleeding.
The next day, Dr. Sergey Abeshaus, a senior neurosurgeon, performed lifesaving surgery on the patient, which included draining a blood clot that was above his brain, and two days later, the patient was discharged home in good condition.
The lifesaving AI app
The Viz.ai Company, with offices in San Francisco, California, and Tel Aviv, developed the app that saved the patient’s life. The company combines capabilities of artificial intelligence with imaging systems, with the aim of identifying cases such as stroke, cerebral hemorrhage, pulmonary embolism, aortic rupture and cerebral aneurysm and to sleep up treatment and and save lives.
The Galilee Medical Center is the first medical center in this country to launch the unique application after its importance and effectiveness was proven in some 600 leading medical centers in both the US and Europe.
Paz, who while working at the medical center also participated in the development of the app, said that it makes it possible to identify urgent medical situations in real time while synchronizing all the care providers.
If it had not been for the app, the patient would probably have come to us late in a much more serious condition and with much worse results.”
The patient, who asked not to reveal his name and photo, said: “I’m glad it ended this way and I feel great. I want to thank all the wonderful angels who took care of me and saved my life. I was happy to hear about this app, and I hope it will save the lives of many more patients in the future.”
Gad Sakin, general manager and chief product officer at Viz.ai in Israel, said: “We are happy and proud when we hear about any case of a person’s life that was saved thanks to the technology that we developed. What happened in Nahariya is another story that emphasizes how much this technology can save lives.”
Prof. Masad Barhoum, the hospital’s director-general, concluded that “we are doing everything that we can to maintain the Galilee Medical Center at the forefront of global technology and help save lives, as in the current case. We continue to implement advanced technological systems for the benefit of the 650,000 residents of the Galilee whom we serve.”
