Advancements in artificial intelligence, automation and machine learning are changing the landscape of health care as we know it. That means bridging the gap between technological innovation and medicine has never been more important.

A paper recently published in the International Journal of Medical Informatics by Furqan Irfan, assistant professor and director of research development in MSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, and several of his colleagues, highlights just how impactful physicians who work on both sides of the line can be.

Irfan frequently partners on research with Fahad Shabbir Ahmed, a physician-resident in pathology at Wayne State University. They share an interest in machine learning, translational science and clinical outcomes — a rare combination that led to the innovative methods used in this publication. Together with several team members from Aga Khan University Hospital and Medical College in Pakistan, Irfan and Ahmed created a novel deep neural network that predicts mortality for COVID-19 patients based on data from the first 24 hours of hospital admission.

For more information on Irfan's research, visit com.msu.edu