June 18, 2025
Artificial intelligence (AI) helps Mayo Clinic specialists offer cutting-edge tools and solutions for advancing patient care. While AI is applied in many areas of research and clinical practice, future possibilities for its use could be limitless.
"Artificial intelligence significantly enhances healthcare by improving diagnostic accuracy, assisting physicians in clinical decisions, and providing patients with timely access to precise, readily available, and compassionate care. AI-powered technologies support earlier interventions, personalized treatments and optimized resource management, resulting in improved patient outcomes and efficiency in healthcare delivery," says Arman Arghami, M.D., M.P.H., a cardiovascular surgeon at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Individualized AI
But how is AI used in cardiac surgery? By using AI-powered technologies, Mayo Clinic cardiac surgeons bring an innovative approach to caring for patients and streamlining necessary clerical tasks. "Mayo Clinic's AI-enabled electrocardiography (AI-ECG) technology aids cardiologists and cardiac surgeons in identifying patient risk factors, facilitating early screening and improved diagnosis," says Dr. Arghami. "This allows surgeons to offer personalized procedures based on AI-predictive outcomes. Additionally, AI is being used to generate clinical notes during patient-physician interactions, enabling providers to spend more meaningful time with their patients."
Mayo Clinic cardiac surgeons use AI to enhance patient care through:
- Precise risk assessments for better preoperative consultation and planning.
- Predictive modeling of surgical outcomes to help tailor postoperative care plans.
- Optimizing planning and resource utilization.
- AI-assisted note creation to allow more face-to-face time with patients.
"Artificial intelligence applications allow proactive management of potential complications and facilitate more care plans tailored to individual patient profiles," says Dr. Arghami.
Forecasting successful outcomes
Cardiac surgery teams use AI to forecast postcardiac surgery outcomes including atrial fibrillation (AFib) and mortality. "Our group's predictive models have demonstrated strong potential in predicting postoperative complications and long-term outcomes following coronary bypass grafting (CABG) surgery based on patient ECG data," says Dr. Arghami. The findings were recently presented at the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) annual meeting. Dr. Arghami was one of the study's authors.
Researchers used the closest preoperative ECG within 30 days of surgery, from 13,808 patients who underwent isolated CABG. The goal of the research was to measure the prognostic value of AI-ECG-derived biological age in predicting outcomes following isolated CABG. The AI-ECG technology, previously developed by Mayo Clinic researchers, provided the cardiac age estimate based on the electrocardiogram record. The age gap was calculated as AI-ECG-derived age minus chronological age.
"We used AI-ECG age to predict outcomes after coronary artery bypass surgery. We noticed that a little less than half of the patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery had an AI-ECG age that is older than the chronological age. These patients with older AI-ECG age had a higher prevalence of comorbidities, a high risk of operative complications including mortality and decreased long-term survival," says Juan A. Crestanello, M.D., a cardiovascular surgeon and the chair of Cardiovascular Surgery at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Crestanello was senior author of the research. "The risks increased as the gap between AI-ECG age and the chronological age increased. There was also an increased risk of atrial fibrillation."
Patients with a positive age gap greater than five years were more likely to exhibit comorbid conditions.
Looking ahead
These findings can help cardiac surgeons with effective preoperative risk stratification, which is critical for guiding surgical options and counseling patients undergoing CABG. Traditional risk scores require time-consuming manual input of many variables, a particular challenge for busy clinical settings.
"Mayo Clinic Cardiovascular Surgery uses artificial intelligence to advance data-driven and personalized approaches to cardiac surgical care. In this context, AI may offer a promising alternative as it can provide rapid, automated insights that will help stratify patients more efficiently," says Dr. Crestanello.
In addition to the CABG study, other research is in the works. "Ongoing studies highlight the effectiveness of AI-driven predictions in outcomes for several procedures," says Dr. Arghami. "They include septal myectomy and aortic valve replacement, providing valuable insight into patient prognosis and facilitating targeted care strategies."
For more information
Refer a patient to Mayo Clinic.