How Caristo is Using AI to Reduce Heart Attack Risk

If you learned that radiologists looking at CT scans for the traditional signs of coronary artery disease catch only 20 percent of the people who actually have a high risk of a heart attack, and if you learned that there’s a new AI-based test that can catch subtle signs of inflammation in the other 80 percent of patients—well, you’d probably want to get that test yourself, right? Harry's guests this week, Frank Cheng and Keith Channon, are from a UK-based company that has developed just such a test. Cheng is the company's CEO, and Channon is co-founder and chief medical officer. And under their leadership, Caristo has introduced a test called CariHeart that applies machine learning to the data in a three-dimensional CT scan of the heart. It looks for otherwise invisible signs of inflammation in the fat tissue around the major coronary arteries, and then it predicts the chances that the patient will suffer a heart attack in the next eight years. Doctors can use that information to decide whether a patient needs to take a cholesterol-lowering drug like a statin or an anti-inflammatory drug like colchicine.  Caristo’s test is being used on an experimental basis in the UK, and it hasn’t yet been approved for use in the US. But it’s a leading example of the way AI, put together with fundamental advances in our understanding of human biology, is really beginning to change the practice of medicine. Cheng and Channon say Caristo’s test isn’t intended to put cardiologists or radiologists out of work—it’s designed to help them be more effective. And given that cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death around the world, any technology that can help catch signs of coronary artery disease earlier could save a lot of lives. For a full transcript of this episode, please visit our episode page at http://www.glorikian.com/podcast  Please rate and review The Harry Glorikian Show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!  Here's how to do that on Apple Podcasts: 1. Open the Podcasts app on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.  2. Navigate to The Harry Glorikian Show podcast. You can find it by searching for it or selecting it from your library. Just note that you'll have to go to the series page which shows all the episodes, not just the page for a single episode. 3. Scroll down to find the subhead titled "Ratings & Reviews." 4. Under one of the highlighted reviews, select "Write a Review." 5. Next, select a star rating at the top — you have the option of choosing between one and five stars.  6. Using the text box at the top, write a title for your review. Then, in the lower text box, write your review. Your review can be up to 300 words long. 7. Once you've finished, select "Send" or "Save" in the top-right corner.  8. If you've never left a podcast review before, enter a nickname. Your nickname will be displayed next to any reviews you leave from here on out.  9. After selecting a nickname, tap OK. Your review may not be immediately visible. On Spotify, the process is similar. Open the Spotify app, navigate to The Harry Glorikian Show, tap the three dots, then tap "Rate Show." Thanks!