The NIH/NIGMS
Center for Integrative Biomedical Computing

Wilson Good, Brian Zenger
Article originally appears in Venturebeat


istock 701228292 e1519760431255You're working in your house, going about your normal routine when suddenly the pain hits. Your chest starts to throb and your left arm begins to ache. Without hesitation, you rush to the hospital, dreading your worst fear has become a reality — you are having a heart attack. Upon arrival, physicians, nurses, and other medical staff begin frantically testing, probing, and prodding nearly every part of your body. They run more tests than you can keep track of and begin shouting orders for new tests and other members of the team. The emergency physician is carefully watching the monitors hooked up by your bedside, puzzled by the results they are seeing. They turn to consult a cardiologist expert on the signals your heart is emitting. But instead of a person, they turn to a computer.