AI tool outperforms human emergency call handlers in identifying strokes,

(May 24, 2023, Munich, Germany) A research team from Denmark has developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) framework to overcome the number of hits that are not recognized by human emergency call handlers.¹ The framework outperformed emergency responders in recognizing stroke for both sexes and across all age groups studied, indicating its potential as an additional tool for early and appropriate stroke identification in the future.

The retrospective study, presented today at the European Stroke Organization Conference (ESOC) 2023, was drawn from the Danish Stroke Registry and a dataset of more than 1.5 million calls made to the Copenhagen Emergency Medical Services between 2015 and 2020, which includes more than 7,000 stroke-related cases. calling. Researchers used this data to train an AI framework to first transcribe call audio and then predict stroke risk based on the transcribed text.

The results, which were evaluated on calls from 2021, revealed that the AI ​​framework worked more effectively than emergency call handlers in identifying stroke cases. The AI ​​framework achieved a recall (sensitivity) of 63.0% and a precision (positive predictive value) of 24.9%, resulting in an F1 score of 35.7.^* In contrast, emergency call handlers had a recall of 52.7% and precision of 17.1%, resulting in an F1 score of 25.8.

Dr Jonathan Wenstrup, one of the study’s lead authors from Copenhagen University Hospital, commented, “As one of the first points of contact for patients seeking medical assistance, emergency call handlers play an important role in facilitating the early and accurate recognition of stroke. Many cases of stroke are not detected at this stage, causing delays in treatment that are potentially life-threatening for patients.”

Across Europe, stroke is the second leading cause of death and the leading cause of adult disability, affecting more than 1 million people each year.^2,3 As the population grows and ages, the number of people living with stroke is projected to increase by 27% between 2017 and 2047 in the European Union (EU).³ Nonetheless, many strokes are preventable, and if treated early, the chances of a positive outcome can be significantly increased.^4,5

“With the implementation of this new, cost-effective support tool, we can improve on-call stroke identification and ensure more patients receive appropriate and timely care, ultimately improving patient outcomes,” added Dr Wenstrup.

“As with any new tool, further research and development is needed to improve the accuracy of the framework and expand its capabilities. In the future, the framework could be trained directly from call audio, skipping the transcription step, as well as incorporating non-word audio – such as slurred sounds – into the training data. However, given the promising results of this study, it is clear that technology such as this has the ability to completely change the diagnosis and treatment of stroke.”

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Notes to editors:

Reference to ESOC 2023 must be included in any coverage or articles related to this research.

For more information or to arrange an expert interview, please contact Hannah Murray at (email protected) or (email protected), or call +44 (0) 208 154 6393.

* Key terms defined:

1. Remember (sensitivity): A measure of the proportion of actual positive cases that are correctly identified
2. Precision (positive predictive value): A measure of the proportion of predicted positive cases that are actually positive
3. Q1: A harmonized precision and recall average, which combines the two metrics into a single score

About the study authors:

Dr Jonathan Wenstrup works in the Department of Neurology, Copenhagen University Hospitals – Herlev and Gentofte, Copenhagen, Denmark and Copenhagen EMS, Denmark.

About ESO:

ESO is a pan-European society of stroke doctors and researchers, national and regional stroke societies and lay organizations, founded in December 2007. ESO is an NGO composed of individual members and organizations. The goal of ESO is to reduce the burden of stroke by changing the way stroke is viewed and handled. This can only be achieved by professional and public education and making institutional changes. ESO serves as the voice of stroke in Europe, harmonizing stroke management across Europe and taking action to reduce the burden.

Four facts about stroke:

1. In 2017, there were 1.12 million incident strokes in the EU and 460,000 deaths³
2. In 2017, there were 7.06 million disability-adjusted life years lost to stroke in the EU³
3. In 2017, stroke-related costs were estimated at €45 billion across the EU, including direct and indirect costs for providing care and lost productivity.³
4. Approximately 1 in 4 stroke survivors will have another stroke, but up to 80% of strokes can be prevented with a combination of medication and healthy habits⁴

^1. Havtorn, JD, Wenstrup J., Borgholt L., et al. A retrospective study of deep learning-enabled stroke recognition for medical helplines. Presented at the European Stroke Organizations Conference; May 24, 2023; Munich, Germany.

^2. OECDiLibrary. Death after stroke. Available at: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/dbabdd9d-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/dbabdd9d-en#:~:text=Stroke%20is%20the%20second%20leading , disease%E2%80%9D%20in%20Chapters%203) (Accessed: May 2023).

^3. Wafa HA, et al. Stroke burden in Europe: Projections of thirty-year incidence, prevalence, mortality, and disability-adjusted years of life. Strokes. 2020;51(8):2418–2427.

^4. American Stroke Association. Preventing Another Stroke. Available at: https://www.stroke.org/en/life-after-stroke/preventing-another-stroke (Accessed: May 2023).

^5. American Stroke Association. Why Getting Rapid Stroke Treatment is Important. Available at: https://www.stroke.org/en/about-stroke/types-of-stroke/is-getting-quick-stroke-treatment-important (Accessed: May 2023).