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‘Coming of Age’ of artificial intelligence: evolution of survivorship care through information technology

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 51, pages 41–42 (2016)Cite this article

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When Dr E Donnall Thomas started to perform human bone marrow transplantations in 1950s, he may not have predicted that the majority of patients undergoing transplant would survive more than a year. Fast forward half a century, about two thirds and >90% of patients are surviving beyond a year of allogeneic or autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), respectively. With >60 000 HSCTs occurring annually, hundreds of thousands of survivors will be living through the decades to come, some struggling with the unique complications of HSCT (for example, graft versus host disease), and some thriving. As these survivors are at a significantly heightened risk of multiple malignant and non-malignant late effects, appropriate surveillance strategies and standardized management algorithms are necessary to prevent the late effects of HSCT.

For the implementation of data-driven preventative guidelines, incorporation of standardized recommendations in day-to-day clinical practice via computer software programming have proven to be safe and have been endorsed by the 2010 Institute of Medicine workshop on Rapid Learning Health Systems.1 The electronic medical record (EMR) contains standard medical and clinical data gathered in provider offices, whereas the electronic health records (EHRs) go beyond the data collected in the provider offices and contain and share information from all providers involved in a patient’s care. EHRs can be created, managed and consulted by authorized providers and staff from >1 health care organization. EHRs improve information availability, can be the foundation for quality improvements, and can help in the provision of reliable access to complete patient health information, which are essential aspects of safe and effective care. With built-in safeguards against potential adverse events (for example, drug–drug interactions), EHRs have the ability to reduce medical errors and improve outcomes. Despite many known benefits of EHRs and EMRs, the majority of the medical community, in general, consists of late adopters.2 When it comes to the highly specialized field of HSCT (and regenerative medicine) where diffusion of knowledge and innovation have far outpaced the adoption of national standard guidelines or good quality research, it is of utmost importance to invest in practical aspects of adoption of evidence-based medicine in both academic and community settings sooner rather than later.

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  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    S Hashmi

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  1. S Hashmi
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Correspondence to S Hashmi.

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Hashmi, S. ‘Coming of Age’ of artificial intelligence: evolution of survivorship care through information technology. Bone Marrow Transplant 51, 41–42 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2015.271

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