​Imagine if there was a technology in place that could predict future diseases that may impact people as they age, enabling patients to access better treatment. This could in fact become a reality thanks to a study carried out by scientists from the State University of New York, University of Buffalo.

Through completing this study, a new model has been developed which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to find out advanced information about complex illnesses that occur as people get older. Published in the Journal of Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics, the AI model uses seven metabolic and a number of cardiovascular biomarkers to determine health status and disease risk. These biomarkers include:

• Body mass index

• Waist-to-hip ratio

• Total cholesterol

• High-density lipoprotein cholesterol

• Triglycerides

• Glucose

• Glycohemoglobin

• Systolic and diastolic blood pressure

• Pulse rate

• Homocysteine

Through analysing these biomarkers, the model can use machine learning to discover how aging affects each measurement by using a memory of previous biomarker levels to predict what these measurements might be in the future. This can then reveal how metabolic and cardiovascular diseases progress as an individual ages.

Murali Ramanathan, a professor in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Buffalo, talks about what this could mean, “With this information, we will be able to understand the development sequence of a disease, and future patients will also get better treatment on time."

Ramanathan continued, “Through many clinical therapies, patients can be saved from heading towards that disease. This model can also be used to assess long-term chronic drug therapy, which will also help doctors to monitor the treatment of diseases like diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure."

AI is being used to assist with new healthcare research all the time, such as helping to take blood from people with hard to find veins, with many exciting new developments continuously being made.

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