Physicians today have access to more patient information and more types of medical devices than ever before, especially with rapidly evolving artificial intelligence in healthcare. Dr. Michael Matheny, professor of medicine and of biomedical informatics and biostatics, is passionate about combining these evolving technologies with a human touch. He's helping clinicians understand how to better use AI and data models to improve patient care.
"I believe artificial intelligence, used as a tool, will improve the patient-practitioner relationship and healthcare overall," said Matheny, who is also director of the Center for Improving the Public's Health through Informatics and was recently elected to the prestigious National Academy of Medicine and American Association for the Advancement of Science for his contributions to advancing scientific knowledge and its applications.
"Some of the work I'm doing that's the most valuable and exciting is using the new wave of AI large language models to leverage massive amounts of data for two key areas: implanted medical product surveillance and improved patient medical records," he said.
PROTECTING VETERANS
But as the son and grandson of military veterans, it's Matheny's work with the Veterans Affairs Tennessee Valley Healthcare System as a biomedical informatician and primary care physician that's driven him for more than 20 years.
He received his first VA career development award in 2009 and has been VA-funded ever since. He is co-director of the VA-focused Advanced Fellowship in Medical Informatics and associate director of the VA's VETWISE-LHS Center of Innovation, leading the data science core.
SAFER IMPLANTED MEDICAL DEVICES
The World Health Organization estimates there are about 2 million types of implantable medical devices on the market, from pacemakers to artificial knees to cochlear implants and more.
Matheny, who believes that AI is an incredible tool for advancing medical device safety, is a long-standing partner with the FDA and device manufacturers in using big data sets to help identify medical device issues.
"I've been passionate about helping make implanted medical devices as safe as possible for a long time, particularly in cardiovascular devices with career-long collaborator Frederic Resnic," he said.
"What's exciting about right now is that with increasing access to health data, and advances we and others have made in the use of AI in medical device safety, we are able to more efficiently identify medical product signals that might harm patients." -Michael Matheny
As part of an ongoing collaboration with the National Academy of Medicine, he's helping build resources for the Patient Safety in the Era of AI initiative. The group coordinates experts to give recommendations and guidance on patient safety, which has been a challenge for decades and is only growing more complex.
MORE EFFICIENT MEDICAL RECORDS
Matheny's other main research area, which touches just about everyone, is using AI to support the deluge of information available to clinicians in a patient's medical record.
"Human cognition is limited, and a provider cannot be expected to manage terabytes of information on every patient going back decades into their medical history," he said.
Currently Matheny and his career-long collaborator Edward Siew, Vanderbilt professor of medicine, are partnering with the VA on a project to help inpatient care teams leverage AI in the diagnosis of severe kidney injury. Part of that research summarizes years of patient clinical information.
"We want to help providers think about different causes and etiologies of what's going on with the patient's kidney," he said. "Being able to use that data and look back and pull forward information that is relevant for that diagnosis that would be easily missed by trying to do a manual chart review is crucial and something that I'm very passionate about."
Not only could it make the process of diagnosis more effective, but it allows practitioners to spend more time doing what humans do best-communicating and connecting with patients.
SUPPORTING THE NEXT GENERATION
The husband and father of two is also inspired to support young doctors and researchers.
"I really enjoy working with my mentees through their challenges and helping them pursue funding for their own research dreams and passions," Matheny said. "I'm dedicated to supporting them because we never know what great things will come from the next generation's ideas and vision."
