Here’s Why UC San Diego is Building an ‘AI Mission Control’
UC San Diego is using a $22 million donation from local philanthropists to build an AI “mission control center” at the university’s La Jolla medical center.
The goal of the command center is to centralize, organize, and analyze the increasing amounts of data that UC San Diego Health systems produce, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
For example, a normal hospital or medical center these days has a plethora of devices ranging from bedside patient monitors to air filtration systems. The result is basically an endless stream of ones and zeroes to sift through.
UC San Diego’s AI mission control center will use artificial intelligence to analyze the mountains of information to spot patterns, identify errors, and possibly predict when patients may develop new symptoms or conditions, the Union-Tribune reported.
One AI-based program implemented at UC San Diego six months ago has led to the “lowest observed expected mortality and sepsis that we’ve ever seen,” said Dr. Christopher Longhurst, chief medical and digital officer.
Other AI programs could allow medical professionals to easily flag potential complications and even remotely monitor the health of outpatients with chronic health conditions. From the command center, pertinent information will then flow to doctors, nurses, and other staff “on the ground.”
The ultimate goal is to provide a much more efficient and overall better level of care to UC San Diego Health patients. In other words, the medical center is going to create the type of mission control center that you’d expect to see during a NASA launch.
In fact, Longhurst likened the use of AI algorithms in medical care to NASA control centers during space missions.
“It’s Apollo 13, right?” Longhurst told the Union-Tribune. “Those guys didn’t land on the moon by themselves, they had help.”
The command center isn’t the only new development at UC San Diego, which is also spending more than $1 billion on new student housing and other facilities.
Want to learn more about the university? Check out the best UCSD La Jolla secrets and urban legends.
Banner image courtesy of ucsd.edu.
Mike Peterson is a writer, editor, and strategist based in San Diego. When he’s not writing and editing the La Jolla news, you can often find him practicing yoga, rock climbing, or exploring the outdoors with his wife and dog.
