Celebrating 75 Years of Innovation in Nursing Education and Research

Rounds explore AI and health research

Mar 6, 2019

Photo above: Dr. Sherifali

How can we harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) in health research? That was the key question addressed at the Research Rounds offered by the School of Nursing on February 25.

Two presenters, Dr. Diana Sherifali and Dr. Michael McGillion, both faculty members of the School of Nursing, spoke about their experience with AI in their research projects.

Sherifali discussed how her team was using AI to scale up health coaching for diabetes. “The project uses AI to crunch the data on more than 500 patients and will help determine which patients benefit the most from what dose and what type of coaching,” Sherifali explained.

photo of Michael McGillion

Photo above: Dr. McGillion

McGillion’s research involves the monitoring of post-operative patients. “Our team will be using the innovative Cloud DX Vitaliti monitoring device to collect continuous vital signs on 20,000 patients undergoing surgery. This will yield 720,000 hours of biometric recording. This study will produce sufficient big data to determine true signs of adverse events versus benign abnormalities,” said McGillion, who is leading the team with Co-Principal Investigator Dr. PJ Devereaux.

Audience members included faculty and students from the School of Nursing. “There was some discussion about the future of nursing and core competencies for curriculum development in terms of educating future nurses to become leaders in this arena of AI,” said McGillion.

Carly Whitmore, a student in the PhD program, notes that some of the ideas she took away from the rounds were: 1. Technology and AI can and will provide greater opportunity for the nurse to provide excellent care, and 2. Social justice and equity must be provided at all levels.

New grant will support clinical trial of wearable vital sign monitor