Emergency departments are busy places, so it’s imperative to find ways to improve care pathways and quickly treat patients with possible fractures, since delays in the diagnosis and treatment of these conditions can lead to further complications and prolong patient recovery times. With this in mind, Montréal West Island CIUSSS has partnered with Milvue to implement an innovative solution using artificial intelligence (AI).

Milvue’s Health Canada-approved Smart Trauma product detects areas on X-rays where fractures are probable. The system helps clinicians make decisions and enables them to quickly determine next steps, for example, whether to immobilize the possible fracture or refer the patient for an urgent radiology consult. AI doesn’t replace radiologists, but it does speed up diagnostic processes.

There are multiple benefits to this technology. It detects fractures quickly, which speeds up the process for making decisions about care. Speeding up the process also reduces wait times in the ER.

This initiative involves close collaboration between our radiology department, our ER and our digital health, information resources and biomedical engineering department. Since its rollout in May, the Smart Trauma solution has detected a considerable number of fractures.

Using AI as part of the radiological fracture diagnosis process is clearly an essential tool to ensure faster, better quality care, and it may help relieve overcrowding in emergency departments.

Lead:
Dr. Stephen Rosenthal, Director of Digital Health, Information Resources and Biomedical Engineering