MENLO PARK, Calif., Feb. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. has never seen
security measures like those now in Salt Lake City for the Olympics. One
little known measure, just put into place, gives early warning of a possible
bioterrorist attack. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) computer system
analyzes patient data from emergency rooms and instant care facilities across
the state. If it detects a significant pattern, it pages the on-call state
public health physician.
President Bush sees a demonstration
On February 5, while President Bush was visiting Pittsburgh, praised the
demonstration he saw of the Realtime Outbreak and Disease Surveillance (RODS.)
The RODS system was developed collaboratively between the University of
Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. RODS has been in use in Western
Pennsylvania since late 1999. In his speech following the demonstration,
President Bush called RODS "innovative," and an "incredibly useful tool for
America ... to protect ourselves ... (from) insidious biological attack."
Installing RODS in Utah
As Bush viewed the system in Pittsburgh, Per Gesteland, M.D., was working
with a team in Utah to finish installing RODS in time for the Olympics. They
were on a very tight timeframe. Gesteland learned of the system during a talk
in November given by RODS creator Michael Wagner, M.D., Director of the
Biomedical Security Institute and a faculty member at the University of
Pittsburgh.
In less than two months, Gesteland's team was able to ready the system.
It now covers 80% of the state, including the entire geographic area of the
Olympics. It takes data from 80% of the health care systems in the region,
including Intermountain Health Care, the official provider of health care for
the Olympics.
AI for anti-terrorism
"The RODS system is a first step in a direction you'll see a lot more of
over the coming five years," observes Tom Mitchell, Fredkin Professor of AI
and Learning at Carnegie Mellon University, and President of the American
Association for Artificial Intelligence. "It's pretty obvious that a lot can
be done with AI machine learning and data mining algorithms if you take the
trouble to link data sources together. September 11 is motivating us to take
the trouble to link together the data to find general trends and anomalous
events."
RODS (Real-time Outbreak Detection System): What it does
RODS is an early warning system to assist health care personnel in the
early interception and treatment of an outbreak -- not just from bioterrorism.
Since September 11, however, bioterrorism has taken center stage. "Almost any
organism or pathogen can be weaponized and contaminate lots of people
simultaneously," explains RODS principal investigator Michael Wagner, M.D.,
Director of the Biomedical Security Institute and a faculty member at the
University of Pittsburgh. "By the time a clinician diagnoses it correctly, it
could be too late to do anything because it could be so far advanced and very
widespread by contagion. Catching the first case or two can have enormous
value in preventing contagious second and third waves."
The RODS system collects and analyzes relevant data such as emergency room
registration data and lab results. It uses several Artificial Intelligence
techniques for machine learning, natural language and data mining.
Public health services using RODS can review vast amounts of data from
very large geographical areas to detect alarming trends across a number of
patients quickly. If the system finds a number of patients complaining of
respiratory problems, a rash, or a collapse, for instance, RODS automatically
pages the public health official on call who can review the individual cases
and take appropriate action.
RODS was initially installed in Western Pennsylvania in August of 1999 for
public health surveillance for the 3 million residents of 13 counties. So
far, the system has detected only a naturally occurring outbreak of influenza.
It is now being extended to all of Pennsylvania. Other public health
departments in the U.S. are now showing interest in RODS. Given how quickly
it was installed in Utah, Wagner believes it could also be implemented in
other states fairly quickly.
Research funding has come from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Library
of Medicine, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Related Web sites:
President's speech:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/02/20020205-4.html
RODS Home Page: http://www.health.pitt.edu/RODS/
About AAAI
Founded in 1979, the American Association for Artificial Intelligence
(http://www.aaai.org) is a nonprofit scientific membership society devoted to
advancing the science and practice of AI. Its mission is to: (1) advance the
scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying intelligent thought and
behavior, (2) facilitate their embodiment in machines, (3) serve as an
information resource for research planners and the general public concerning
trends in AI, and (4) offer training for the current and coming generations of
AI researchers and practitioners.
SOURCE American Association for Artificial Intelligence
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Related links:
http://www.aaai.org
CONTACT:
En Park of Blue Sky Communications,
+1-425-635-0996, or en@sprintmail.com, for American Association
for Artificial Intelligence
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