Enhancing Palliative Care for Patients with Serious Cardiovascular Conditions through the Development and Implementation of Computational Tools

Palliative care has proven beneficial for both patients and families, yet it remains significantly underutilized. According to the WHO, only 14% of patients in need of palliative care actually receive it. This gap is particularly pronounced among non-cancer patients, such as those with cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. A key reason for the underuse of palliative care in CVD patients is the failure to identify their palliative care needs. While various screening tools exist, healthcare workers in the CVD field often perceive them as too time-consuming and burdensome to use. The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies offers promising opportunities to address this challenge, as AI can assist in identifying palliative care needs by analyzing electronic health records (EHRs). The primary objective of this project is twofold: (i) to develop and implement an AI-based algorithm to identify cardiovascular patients with palliative care needs, and (ii) to evaluate the effect of prompting palliative care needs within EHRs on initiating palliative care trajectories for these patients.

Keywords:Natural Language Processing, Machine learning, Cardiology, Palliative care, Computational modelling

Disciplines:Computational biomodelling and machine learning, Cardiology, Palliative care and end-of-life care