Artificial intelligence (AI) has quietly become a part of our daily lives – through personalized recommendations, virtual assistants, or smart devices, we barely notice it anymore. Yet many of us might not realize the advances AI is making in healthcare. From accelerating drug discovery to improving disease detection, it is transforming the way we understand and manage health.

AI has had numerous applications in cardiology in recent years, from analyzing results of cardiac imaging tests to predicting disease outcomes.1 But where do we go from here?

Through focused efforts in health tech innovation, Pfizer is committed to advancing how we detect individuals at risk of transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis (known as ATTR-CM) – a rare, progressive, and underdiagnosed cause of heart failure.2,3 We are advancing AI in healthcare by supporting cutting-edge initiatives to accelerate identification of “at-risk” patients.

Early Identification is Critical

Despite advances in imaging and diagnostic techniques, accurate and early diagnosis of rare heart conditions, such as ATTR-CM, remains a challenge.4 Many patients cycle through multiple different physicians and may wait years for a confirmed diagnosis.4 As ATTR-CM is a progressive disease, timely diagnosis and management are critical, with the goal of improving quality of life and helping patients to live longer.2,5

“At-risk” patients may previously have gone unnoticed with routine screening methods.4 To help tackle this challenge, Pfizer is helping bring AI into the ATTR-CM space, by supporting innovators in the field. Through embracing AI advances, we hope to help physicians proactively detect at-risk individuals earlier, paving the way for improved health outcomes for patients.

Our Vision: Realizing AI to Accelerate Diagnosis Worldwide

To help improve the early suspicion and diagnosis of ATTR-CM, we are supporting AI technology innovation in hospitals globally. This is reflected in ongoing partnership initiatives in the US, Germany, Japan, and Canada that leverage specialized AI algorithms. Through these initiatives, AI tools using electronic health record (EHR), electrocardiography (ECG), and echocardiography (ECHO) outputs are already being deployed to facilitate earlier suspicion and diagnosis, but our ambitions do not stop there.

Building on our successes and further broadening the reach of our initiatives, we are actively pursuing new collaborations, to provide innovative screening tools to clinicians globally, supporting them in identification of patients with ATTR-CM.

AI in action – take a look at how AI technology can enhance patient identification, as evidenced by a recent Pfizer partnership initiative:
  • In only 12 hours, an AI algorithm screened and analyzed data from the medical records of a general population in a university hospital in Germany
  • Data from more than 207,000 patients were processed
  • Seven patients with a high risk of ATTR-CM were identified
In a serious and progressive disease like ATTR-CM, timely identification is paramount to allow for patients to be appropriately screened and managed.

AI: ATTR-CM Diagnostic Revolution

As seen in the example above, AI has the potential to revolutionize time to diagnosis of ATTR-CM by streamlining the patient journey. These groundbreaking innovations can help facilitate early identification of at-risk patients, support the timely suspicion and management of ATTR-CM, and spark conversations about the role of AI and the importance of early diagnosis. With these advances, we have the opportunity to help clinicians globally take a step toward innovation in their daily practice.

Innovating for the Future

Pfizer recognizes that the complexity of healthcare requires many diverse partners. We believe there is more power and potential in thinking collaboratively. We embrace innovative technology to help solve healthcare problems, such as the need for earlier identification and diagnosis in ATTR-CM. We look forward to a future where all patients receive a timely diagnosis for this serious, progressive, and manageable cause of heart failure.