ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Artificial intelligence is playing a more significant role in the lives of everyday people. And in the medical field, it’s becoming a game changer.

What You Need To Know

  • VIZ.AI app was used at Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital in St. Petersburg to help a stroke victim

  • The hospital uses AI to quickly help patients

  • Experts say AI can help identify issues with a patient

Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital in St. Petersburg uses an app that can help doctors identify, among other things, when a patient is having a stroke.

Ana Cortes, 88, nearly lost her life in 2022. She was sitting on her couch when she collapsed onto the ground. Her son, Richard Ramos, was nearby and helped her.

He called 911 and paramedics arrived and rushed her to Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital, where she underwent a CT scan. From the information gathered from the CT scan, it was then fed into an app called VIZ.AI.

“The application actually analyzes the data, so if there was something thar we missed, it overshoots, so sometimes it actually overcalls,” Dr. Lowell Dawson said.

Dawson received the alert on his cell phone while celebrating his birthday at home and quickly determined that Cortes had a stroke.

“What it does is reference thousands of scans, so it analyzes it and the data as well," he said. "We analyze it as well — we don’t 100% rely on the AI app — but it does facilitate the triage of patients quicker."

Dawson was able to figure out a treatment plan quickly that cleared Cortes's blood clot, and she was out of the hospital in just four days.