Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Neonatology

Abstract

The development of artificial intelligence methods has impacted therapeutics, personalized diagnostics, drug discovery, and medical imaging. Although, in many situations, AI clinical decision-support tools may seem superior to rule-based tools, their use may result in additional challenges. Examples include the paucity of large datasets and the presence of unbalanced data (i.e., due to the low occurrence of adverse outcomes), as often seen in neonatal medicine. The most recent and impactful applications of AI in neonatal medicine are discussed in this review, highlighting future research directions relating to the neonatal population. Current AI applications tested in neonatology include tools for vital signs monitoring, disease prediction (respiratory distress syndrome, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, apnea of prematurity) and risk stratification (retinopathy of prematurity, intestinal perforation, jaundice), neurological diagnostic and prognostic support (electroencephalograms, sleep stage classification, neuroimaging), and novel image recognition technologies, which are particularly useful for prompt recognition of infections. To have these kinds of tools helping neonatologists in daily clinical practice could be something extremely revolutionary in the next future. On the other hand, it is important to recognize the limitations of AI to ensure the proper use of this technology.