A new tool powered by artificial intelligence (AI) could soon give doctors a much clearer picture of a heart attack patient’s future. The system not only forecasts the risk of death more accurately but can also identify which treatments will help a specific person the most.
This development comes from a team of researchers at the University of Zurich and their European colleagues. Their study was published in the journal The Lancet Digital Health. The AI model focuses on patients with acute coronary syndrome, a condition where the heart’s blood flow is suddenly blocked, often leading to a heart attack.
To build this system, named GRACE 3.0, scientists used the medical records of more than 600,000 patients from ten European nations. The AI was trained to spot subtle and complex patterns in this data. It is specially designed for the most frequent form of heart attack, called an NSTEMI.
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In tests, the new model performed significantly better than the older scoring method used by doctors. On a standard scale where 1.0 is a perfect score, the AI achieved a 0.90 for predicting which patients might die during their hospital stay. It was also substantially better at estimating the risk of death within one year of the heart attack.
The most innovative feature is the model’s ability to personalize care. It can estimate how much an individual patient will gain from having an early invasive procedure, such as inserting a catheter to open a blocked artery.
Surprisingly, the analysis showed that this common procedure does not benefit everyone equally. Patients who saw the most significant improvement were often younger, more frequently women, and had healthy kidney function along with clear signs of heart damage. For many other patients, the same treatment provided minimal advantage or was potentially harmful.
This insight could change how heart attacks are managed. Instead of applying a one-size-fits-all approach, physicians could use the AI’s analysis to tailor strategies for each person sitting in front of them.
The Zurich researchers believe this technology could greatly improve recovery and long-term health for heart attack survivors. They also acknowledged the tool’s current limits, noting that its data is entirely from Europe and that its treatment recommendations need more testing in future clinical trials. Despite this, the AI has strong potential to shape new standards of care for heart patients in the coming years.