AI enabled wearable camera system detects potential errors in medication delivery

Developed and tested at the University of Washington, the video system has shown that it can recognise and identify medications drawn in busy clinical settings. The AI is said to have achieved 99.6 per cent sensitivity and 98.8 per cent specificity at detecting vial-swap errors.

The team’s findings are reported in npj Digital Medicine.

The system could become a critical safeguard, especially in operating rooms, intensive-care units and emergency-medicine settings, said co-lead author Dr Kelly Michaelsen, an assistant professor of anaesthesiology and pain medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

“The thought of being able to help patients in real time or to prevent a medication error before it happens is very powerful,” she said in a statement. “One can hope for a 100 per cent performance but even humans cannot achieve that. In a survey of more than 100 anaesthesia providers, the majority desired the system to be more than 95 per cent accurate, which is a goal we achieved.”