In a press release published, researchers at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have announced that they will develop an AI model that will help to predict opioid addiction in high-risk patients.
Specifically, the project will be funded through a three-year contract with the organisation Wellcome Leap as part of a $50 million initiative called Untangling Addiction, with the goal to “revolutionize how we understand opioid addiction and leverage innovative tools, such as artificial intelligence and predictive modeling, to intervene.” Furthermore, UCSD School of Medicine was one of 14 locations worldwide to receive this funding.
“Controlled opioids in the health care setting are still an important part of adequate pain control and used for standard care. However, it is critical to know who is receiving these drugs and the risk it carries with some patients,” said Dr. Rodney Gabriel, the project’s lead researcher at UCSD. “The AI model will help to identify who is most at risk for an opioid addiction and implement useful resources to help manage their opioid regimen. This way, we can better manage pain in this patient population and also avoid the potentially dangerous downstream consequences of addiction.”
The model built by researchers will use generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to predict multiple aspects of a patient’s prior and future behaviours. In addition, researchers will develop electronic health record (EHR) foundation models in a secure platform, in order to use large multi-institutional datasets to implement genomic, social determinants of health, clinical, procedural, and demographic data to predict the development of opioid use disorder and related outcomes among any patient initially prescribed an opioid.
“Anesthesiologists have access to a variety of secure data, which we review to safely get a patient through surgery. Dr. Gabriel’s research focus is how AI-assisted knowledge of a patient’s risks can optimize their overall care, and in this particular instance, decrease the chances of addiction,” said Dr. Ruth Waterman, MD, chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at UC San Diego School of Medicine and anesthesiologist at UC San Diego Health. “What will be gained from this project will be translatable to many other areas of a patient’s health care journey, resulting in better outcomes and care.”
Once the AI tool is ready to be tested in clinical settings, Dr. Gabriel and his team will partner with the Joan & Irwin Jacobs Center for Health Innovation at UC San Diego Health (JCHI) to implement AI approaches into clinical care.
