Artificial intelligence in clinical and translational science: Successes, challenges and opportunities.

Journal: Clinical and translational science
PMID: 34706145

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming many domains, including finance, agriculture, defense, and biomedicine. In this paper, we focus on the role of AI in clinical and translational research (CTR), including preclinical research (T1), clinical research (T2), clinical implementation (T3), and public (or population) health (T4). Given the rapid evolution of AI in CTR, we present three complementary perspectives: (1) scoping literature review, (2) survey, and (3) analysis of federally funded projects. For each CTR phase, we addressed challenges, successes, failures, and opportunities for AI. We surveyed Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) hubs regarding AI projects at their institutions. Nineteen of 63 CTSA hubs (30%) responded to the survey. The most common funding source (48.5%) was the federal government. The most common translational phase was T2 (clinical research, 40.2%). Clinicians were the intended users in 44.6% of projects and researchers in 32.3% of projects. The most common computational approaches were supervised machine learning (38.6%) and deep learning (34.2%). The number of projects steadily increased from 2012 to 2020. Finally, we analyzed 2604 AI projects at CTSA hubs using the National Institutes of Health Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools (RePORTER) database for 2011-2019. We mapped available abstracts to medical subject headings and found that nervous system (16.3%) and mental disorders (16.2) were the most common topics addressed. From a computational perspective, big data (32.3%) and deep learning (30.0%) were most common. This work represents a snapshot in time of the role of AI in the CTSA program.

Authors

  • Elmer V Bernstam
    Center for Computational Biomedicine, School of Biomedical Informatics, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, USA, Department of Public Health Science, Medical University of South Carolina, 135 Cannon Street, Suite 303, Charleston, SC 29425, USA and Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics, Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy, UT-MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1400 Holcombe Blvd., FC8.3044, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
  • Paula K Shireman
    University of Texas Health San Antonio Long School of Medicine and the South Texas Veterans Health Care System, San Antonio, TX.
  • Funda Meric-Bernstam
    Center for Computational Biomedicine, School of Biomedical Informatics, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, USA, Department of Public Health Science, Medical University of South Carolina, 135 Cannon Street, Suite 303, Charleston, SC 29425, USA and Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics, Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy, UT-MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1400 Holcombe Blvd., FC8.3044, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
  • Meredith N Zozus
    Division of Clinical Research Informatics, Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Texas Health San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA.
  • Xiaoqian Jiang
    School of Biomedical Informatics, University of Texas Health, Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA.
  • Bradley B Brimhall
    University Health, San Antonio, Texas, USA.
  • Ashley K Windham
    University Health, San Antonio, Texas, USA.
  • Susanne Schmidt
    Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Texas Health San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA.
  • Shyam Visweswaran
    University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
  • Ye Ye
    Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 5607 Baum Boulevard, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; Intelligent System Program, University of Pittsburgh Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, 210 South Bouquet Street, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
  • Heath Goodrum
    School of Biomedical Informatics, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX, United States.
  • Yaobin Ling
    School of Biomedical Informatics, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, USA.
  • Seemran Barapatre
    Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
  • Michael J Becich
    SpIntellx Inc.

Keywords

External Resources

Popular Topics
Recent Journals