Latest news with #Cedars-Sinai
Business Insider
6 days ago
- Health
- Business Insider
Cedars-Sinai's AI tool delivered 24/7 care to 42,000 patients. Now, doctors can focus on treatment, not paperwork.
Cedars-Sinai launched CS Connect, an AI-powered platform for 24/7 healthcare support. The platform aims to reduce wait times and administrative tasks, improving care delivery. This article is part of " CXO AI Playbook" — straight talk from business leaders on how they're testing and using AI. Cedars-Sinai is a nonprofit healthcare organization based in Los Angeles. It's comprised of hospitals, clinics, and research facilities. Founded in 1902, Cedars-Sinai has more than 40 locations, employs over 4,500 physicians and nurses, and serves more than 1 million patients every year. Situation analysis Caroline Goldzweig, chief medical officer of Cedars-Sinai Medical Network, told Business Insider that the organization wanted to expand patients' access to primary care in a more efficient and convenient way. For instance, sometimes there are lengthy wait times for in-person doctor's appointments. At the same time, Goldzweig said the organization was looking to reduce the administrative burden on physicians, including patient intake and data entry, so that they could focus on providing care. To address these challenges, the organization launched Cedars-Sinai Connect in 2023. CS Connect is an artificial intelligence -powered virtual platform where patients can access healthcare support 24/7. Goldzweig said the AI technology allows healthcare providers to better support their patients while improving the speed of care delivery. "The other exciting thing is the ability to offer patients care in ways that meet their needs," she said. Key staff and partners Goldzweig told Business Insider that CS Connect was built using K Health, a digital healthcare company providing AI-powered primary and urgent care services. Cedars-Sinai's information technology teams worked with K Health to sync patients' electronic health records into the platform, she said. Cedars-Sinai's enterprise data intelligence and digital strategy teams were also involved in creating CS Connect. They continue to help manage it. AI in action The goal of the AI tool is to enable providers to spend more time counseling patients and making treatment decisions, rather than doing patient intake. To access the AI features, patients log into CS Connect via a mobile app or its website. Goldzweig said a chat feature then starts asking the user questions about their symptoms. The AI algorithm compares the patient's responses to their existing medical records and the records of other patients in the system who had similar symptoms. It then asks more detailed questions about a patient's specific health problems. The chatbot, for example, may prompt the patient to submit photos of their sore throat or rash. Goldzweig said the chat function is similar to how a physician might identify a patient's ailment. The AI then summarizes the patient's information — a task that usually demands manual effort from physicians — and recommends a treatment. The data collected by CS Connect is "part of the efficiency process," Goldzweig said. "It allows the physicians to review it, to understand what's going on, and to validate things with the patient — ask a couple of clarifying questions and maybe get a little bit more history." Physicians can choose to disagree with the AI's recommendations. Goldzweig said either way, they're required to sign off on each patient's treatment plan. Did it work, and how did leaders know? Goldzweig told BI that about 42,000 individual patients have used CS Connect. In April 2025, Cedars-Sinai published a study in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine comparing AI treatment recommendations in CS Connect with final recommendations from doctors. The study reviewed 461 physician-managed visits with AI recommendations for respiratory, urinary, vaginal, eye, and dental symptoms. Results showed that when AI and physician recommendations differed, the AI suggestions were often rated as higher quality. The study found that 77% of AI recommendations were rated as optimal, while 67% of physicians' decisions were rated optimal. For example, patients with recurring urinary tract infections sometimes encounter antibiotic resistance. Goldzweig said the AI was successful at identifying these patients and recommended a bacterial culture before prescribing antibiotics. In contrast, doctors sometimes prescribe medication without testing, which she said could result in the infection coming back. Goldzweig added that the study suggests that the AI tool tends to be more guideline-focused, while physicians have the ability to adapt medical guidelines based on the nuance of a patient's case. Goldzweig said the study has limitations, though. It examined only a few medical conditions and didn't factor in the nuance of individual patient cases. Another limitation is that the medical chart reviewers could see whether the recommendation was made by the AI or a physician. Cedars-Sinai is working to expand CS Connect. The organization is piloting remote patient monitoring technology using AI to help people manage chronic diseases, like high blood pressure. It's also planning to use the AI technology to connect in-person urgent care visits with virtual care.
Los Angeles Times
22-07-2025
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
Doctors at Cedars-Sinai develop AI-powered mental health ‘robot' therapist
Misty Williams checks into the emergency room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from time to time for treatment of debilitating pain from sickle cell disease, which causes red blood cells to stiffen and block the flow of blood. After pain medication and hydration are ordered, the 41-year-old Los Angeles resident makes an unusual request: access to a virtual reality headset with an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot that can carry on a dialogue with her. With the headset on, Williams finds herself in a virtual garden, butterflies drifting around her. A humanoid robot greets her with a soothing female voice. 'Hi, and welcome. My name is Xaia, and I'm your mental health ally,' it says. 'How can I help?' After a session, Williams' pain eases and her mind is calmer. 'Mentally and physically, I feel more at peace,' Williams said. Xaia (pronounced ZAI-uh) is just one of many ways that artificial intelligence technology is barreling its way into the burgeoning sector known as digital health. Digital health startups using AI accounted for an estimated $3.9 billion in funding in 2024, or 38% of the sector's total, according to the digital health advisory firm Rock Health. Mental health was the top-funded clinical area, drawing $1.4 billion. Major medical institutions in Los Angeles are embracing the trend. UCLA Health is using AI to help doctors catch strokes faster, reduce hospital re-admissions and spend more time with patients by automating medical notes, said Paul Lukac, chief AI officer. Keck Medicine of USC plans to offer employees a commercial AI chat tool to support stress management, according to Dr. Steven Siegel, chief mental health and wellness officer. At Cedars-Sinai, Xaia — an acronym for eXtended-reality Artificially Intelligent Ally — was designed and programmed by Dr. Omer Liran, with ideas and research support from Dr. Brennan Spiegel and therapeutic input from clinical psychologist Robert Chernoff, in collaboration with the medical center's Technology Ventures. VRx Health, a for-profit company founded by Liran, holds an exclusive license from Cedars-Sinai to market Xaia commercially. Cedars-Sinai and several private investors hold equity in the company. A version like the one Misty Williams uses is available to the public via the Apple Vision virtual reality headsets for $19.99 a month. A VR version for the Meta headset is freely available only to researchers. A web and mobile version is accessible to licensed clinicians for tiered pricing between $99 and $399-plus per month, which allows them to invite patients to use the tool. Liran, a psychiatrist, said Xaia is designed to supplement, and not replace, the services of mental health therapists amid a national shortage of providers. 'Even if somebody needs to be seen once a week, they may only get seen once a month,' he said. The Xaia app draws from hundreds of therapy transcripts, both from real sessions and mock sessions created by experts to sound like an actual therapist. For example, if users tell Xaia they're struggling with a new cancer diagnosis, the robot might say, 'That must be very hard for you,' then ask how it's affecting their mood, and what they find themselves doing when they're overwhelmed. 'Trying to stay positive when things feel so heavy must take a lot of energy,' the chatbot says. 'When you notice yourself being pulled back into those difficult thoughts, what usually happens next? Do you find yourself withdrawing, or do you turn to anyone for support?' So far, Xaia has been used by about 300 patients across various research studies at Cedars-Sinai, including those focused on chronic pain, alcohol use disorder, and irritable bowel syndrome, said Spiegel, director of health services research at Cedars-Sinai. Many people with chronic illnesses also struggle with anxiety or depression, Spiegel said. Physical and emotional symptoms feed off each other, and tools like Xaia aim to help with both. The tool isn't covered by insurance yet, but billing codes for virtual reality therapy and digital health services do exist, and other hospitals like the Mayo Clinic are beginning to use them. VRx has an agreement to deploy Xaia at Mayo Clinic, according to VRx Chief Executive Gabe Zetter. Xaia isn't the only app of its kind. Woebot, a pioneering chatbot developed by psychologist Alison Darcy while at Stanford, used scripted conversations based on cognitive behavioral therapy to support users with anxiety and depression. Though it reached 1.5 million users, the company shut down the app in July. Darcy said the company is now focused on building new tools with large language models, since AI is moving faster than regulators like the Food and Drug Administration can keep up. In recent years, some emotional support chatbots have been blamed for deepening distress, including one incident in which a Florida teen died by suicide in 2024 after extended conversations with a chatbot. Such incidents underscore the risks of emotionally responsive AI tools, said Todd Essig, a psychologist and founder and co-chair of the American Psychoanalytic Assn.'s Council on Artificial Intelligence. 'Even after the most loving, empathic response, an AI doesn't care if you drive to the store or drive off a cliff,' Essig said. AI programs learn to mimic human responses, Essig said, so it's up to the people building them to set clear limits and ensure they don't cause harm. When built with ethical frameworks and used under clinical supervision, tools like Xaia can support genuine therapeutic progress, functioning more like digital journals — a modern twist on the paper workbooks given to patients decades ago, said Jodi Halpern, a professor of bioethics and medical humanities at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. But many emotional support chatbots that aren't clinically monitored are designed to mimic intimacy and build emotional bonds. 'People can experience the app as another,' Halpern said. 'But it's not actually giving them real-life experiences with other humans that are important for developing the healthy, mutually empathic curiosity that people need to participate in complex human relationships.' Halpern noted there is a difference between clinically approved mental health tools and those with no oversight. She and others are supporting a California bill sponsored by state Sen. Steve Padilla (D-Chula Vista) that would require companies developing mental health chatbots or apps to disclose whether their tools are clinically validated, regulated by the FDA or rely on generative AI. Liran said he and his partners are aware of the limitations and have built in guardrails to keep the chatbot from saying anything harmful or inappropriate. For example, one arm of the AI generates the response, and another instantly double-checks it to make sure it's safe before letting it through to the user. 'We're not just opening it up to the public,' Liran said, pointing out that the guided therapy version on mobile and desktop is available only through a licensed clinician right now and Cedars is testing Xaia in multiple studies. 'We're trying to be very careful.' In a 14-person study, patients using Xaia with mild or moderate anxiety or depression opened up about a variety of topics, including a mother who passed away and fear of being laid off. For a patient who had been having night sweats since a breakup, Xaia asked to hear more about what made the relationship feel unresolved and how it affected the patient. Some of the patients still preferred the nuance and responsiveness of a human therapist, but the medical literature suggests patients are warming up to the idea of a nonhuman therapist. In a study published in PLOS Mental Health in February, participants were asked to compare responses written by licensed therapists and those generated by ChatGPT. Not only did many struggle to tell the difference, they consistently rated the AI's replies as more empathic, culturally sensitive and emotionally engaging. Xaia's creators see the tool as an extension of the patient-therapist relationship. It's the kind of thing that might be useful if someone needs mental health support in the middle of the night or between sessions. 'We still need therapists — humans — to look other humans in the eye to have conversations about vulnerable topics,' Spiegel said. At the same time, 'it's not practical to simply bury our head in the sand and say we shouldn't do this, because AI is everywhere,' he said. 'We'll be brushing our teeth with AI before long.'
Los Angeles Times
19-07-2025
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
What to know about chronic venous insufficiency — President Tump's health diagnosis
Earlier this week, President Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, or CVI, after he noted mild swelling in his lower legs. White House physician Dr. Sean P. Barbabella in a memo July 17 said the swelling prompted a full medical evaluation, including ultrasound tests and blood work. Those confirmed CVI, a condition the doctor described as 'benign and common — particularly in individuals over the age of 70.' Dr. Barbabella said he found no other signs of more serious cardiovascular issues like blood clots and declared the president to be in 'excellent health.' 'CVI is when the veins of the body do not work well,' said Dr. Mimmie Kwong, assistant professor of vascular surgery at UC Davis Health, when veins cannot transport blood effectively, causing it to pool, especially in the legs. CVI is one of the most common vein problems in the U.S. and worldwide, affecting 'about one in three adults in the United States,' Kwong said. That translates to more than 30 million people in the U.S., most often older adults, according to Dr. Ali Azizzadeh, a professor and director of Vascular Surgery at Cedars-Sinai and associate director of the Smidt Heart Institute. He noted the condition is more common in women. As people age, the veins, such as in their legs, may have a harder time returning blood to the heart, he said. The valves in the veins of the legs are supposed to keep blood moving in one direction: back toward the heart. But when those valves are damaged or weakened, they can stop working properly, leading blood to flow backward and collect in the lower legs. Individuals who stand or sit for extended periods, or those with a family history of vein issues, may be at a higher risk of developing the condition. 'When the calf muscles are active, they pump the veins that return blood from the legs to the heart,' Azizzadeh explained. 'With prolonged inactivity of those muscles, blood can pool in the legs.' While CVI isn't always painful, it can cause discomfort that worsens as the day goes on. The mornings may feel the best: 'The legs naturally drain while you are lying down and sleeping overnight,' said Azizzadeh, 'so they will typically feel lightest in the morning.' As the day progresses and blood starts to pool, people with CVI may experience swelling, heaviness, aching or a dull pain in their legs. The symptoms tend to worsen after prolonged periods of standing or sitting. If swelling worsens, thickening, inflammation or dry skin can result, with more severe cases developing wounds that do not heal and can even result in amputation, Kwong said. Ttreatment is more manageable when problematic veins are closer to the surface of the skin, Kwong said. It's more problematic when deep veins are affected. The first line of treatment is usually simple lifestyle changes. 'We suggest CEE: compression, elevation, and exercise,' Azizzadeh said. Wearing compression stockings can help push blood out of the legs; elevating the legs allows gravity to help drain blood from the legs toward the heart, and regular walking forces calf muscles to pump blood throughout the body. For people with more serious cases, doctors may recommend a minimally invasive procedure that uses heat to seal off the leaky veins. Common treatments include ablation techniques, surgical removal of veins (phlebectomy), or chemical (sclerosant) injections. 'All of these therapies aim to cause the veins to shut down, so they no longer cause the CVI,' Kwong said. In President Trump's case, the condition appears to be mild and manageable. His doctors emphasized there was no cause for concern and that he remains in good overall health. But for millions of Americans living with CVI, recognizing the symptoms and knowing how to manage them can make a big difference in day-to-day comfort and long-term well-being.
Qatar Tribune
12-07-2025
- Health
- Qatar Tribune
The View Hospital becomes first in Qatar to offer 3D CT Gastric Volume Study for bariatric patients
Tribune News Network Doha The View Hospital, in affiliation with Cedars-Sinai, has become the first hospital in Qatar to offer the 3D CT Gastric Volume Study, an advanced diagnostic imaging service that gives physicians a clearer view of post-surgical anatomy in bariatric patients. The launch of the service marks a milestone not only for the hospital but for the country's evolving landscape of precision medicine. Designed specifically for individuals who have undergone bariatric procedures, the 3D CT Gastric Volume Study delivers highly detailed, three-dimensional images that accurately assess the size and shape of the remaining stomach. The technology helps clinicians detect structural abnormalities, track patient progress, and anticipate potential complications, all with exceptional accuracy and speed. 'For many patients, bariatric surgery is a turning point in their health journey,' said Dr Jassim Fakhro, senior consultant in Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and Medical Director of Qatari Physicians at The View Hospital. 'But it doesn't end in the operating room. Ongoing monitoring is key, and with this technology, we can now offer unmatched insight and support as patients work toward a healthier future.' This imaging advancement couldn't come at a more crucial time. As rates of obesity and metabolic disease rise across the region, bariatric surgery has emerged as a powerful tool for intervention. But surgery alone isn't enough - what follows is a complex physiological transition that demands thoughtful, individualized follow-up care. That's where the 3D CT Gastric Volume Study makes its impact. By visualising the internal anatomy in such detail, physicians can make data-driven decisions tailored to each patient's unique post-surgical profile. Whether it's adjusting dietary recommendations, identifying mechanical issues, or flagging early signs of nutritional compromise, this diagnostic innovation offers a more complete picture and a more proactive path forward. Moreover, this technology plays a pivotal role in planning revisional bariatric surgeries, particularly in cases of weight regain or severe GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) after the initial procedure. The precise anatomical data provided by the 3D imaging enables surgeons to better evaluate the structural causes behind such complications and tailor surgical interventions, accordingly, improving outcomes and patient safety. 'At The View Hospital, we are committed to healthcare innovation and advancing academic care,' said Dr Fatih Mehmet Gul, CEO of The View Hospital. 'The launch of Qatar's first 3D CT Gastric Volume Study for bariatric patients reflects our medical expertise and dedication to providing precise, personalized treatment through cutting-edge technologies.' With this latest addition, The View Hospital further strengthens its position as a leader in advanced, patient-centered care. By combining innovative technology with a deep commitment to personalized medicine, the hospital continues to raise the bar for what modern healthcare should look likein Qatar and across the region.
Qatar Tribune
12-07-2025
- Health
- Qatar Tribune
The View Hospital becomes first in Qatar to offer 3D CT Gastric Volume Study for bariatric patients
Doha The View Hospital, in affiliation with Cedars-Sinai, has become the first hospital in Qatar to offer the 3D CT Gastric Volume Study, an advanced diagnostic imaging service that gives physicians a clearer view of post-surgical anatomy in bariatric patients. The launch of this service marks a milestone not only for the hospital but for the country's evolving landscape of precision medicine. Designed specifically for individuals who have undergone bariatric procedures, the 3D CT Gastric Volume Study delivers highly detailed, three-dimensional images that accurately assess the size and shape of the remaining stomach. The technology helps clinicians detect structural abnormalities, track patient progress, and anticipate potential complications, all with exceptional accuracy and speed. 'For many patients, bariatric surgery is a turning point in their health journey,' said Dr Jassim Fakhro, Senior Consultant in Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and Medical Director of Qatari Physicians at The View Hospital. 'But it doesn't end in the operating room. Ongoing monitoring is key, and with this technology, we can now offer unmatched insight and support as patients work toward a healthier future.' This imaging advancement couldn't come at a more crucial time. As rates of obesity and metabolic disease rise across the region, bariatric surgery has emerged as a powerful tool for intervention. But surgery alone isn't enough - what follows is a complex physiological transition that demands thoughtful, individualized follow-up care. That's where the 3D CT Gastric Volume Study makes its impact. By visualizing the internal anatomy in such detail, physicians can make data-driven decisions tailored to each patient's unique post-surgical profile. Whether it's adjusting dietary recommendations, identifying mechanical issues, or flagging early signs of nutritional compromise, this diagnostic innovation offers a more complete picture and a more proactive path forward. Moreover, this technology plays a pivotal role in planning revisional bariatric surgeries, particularly in cases of weight regain or severe GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) after the initial procedure. The precise anatomical data provided by the 3D imaging enables surgeons to better evaluate the structural causes behind such complications and tailor surgical interventions, accordingly, improving outcomes and patient safety. 'At The View Hospital, we are committed to healthcare innovation and advancing academic care,' said Dr. Fatih Mehmet Gul, CEO of The View Hospital. 'The launch of Qatar's first 3D CT Gastric Volume Study for bariatric patients reflects our medical expertise and dedication to providing precise, personalized treatment through cutting-edge technologies.' With this latest addition, The View Hospital further strengthens its position as a leader in advanced, patient-centered care. By combining innovative technology with a deep commitment to personalized medicine, the hospital continues to raise the bar for what modern healthcare should look like in Qatar and across the region.
