Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Northwestern Medicine/Feinberg School of Medicine

Center for Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics in Gastroenterology

The Center for Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics in Gastroenterology (AIM-GI) is a first of its kind program developed in a division of Gastroenterology.  Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have the potential to vastly improve our ability to accurately predict, diagnose and treat our patients living with digestive diseases.  Through collaboration with engineers at the McCormick School of Engineering and physician scientists at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, our team has been incorporating mathematical modeling and advanced programming to study the mechanisms that lead to poor gastrointestinal function.  This work led to the development of a more formalized center that focuses on three main initiatives.

1. Development of virtual organs which can be used to study the effects of surgery and medications;
2. Development of new hybrid diagnostic tools using AI and machine learning to enhance diagnosis;
3. Using machine learning and neutral networks to predict disease outcome.

Although this is a new program, we have already had success developing an NIH funded Center of Research Expertise (CORE) and we have also developed new AI prototypes that can improve diagnostic accuracy and reliability of motility tests.  This work is supported by the generosity of the Digestive Health Foundation and these funds help provide the computational power and expertise required to continue to develop these innovative tools.  Our goal is to continue invent and develop new approaches and our partnership with the Digestive Disease Foundation will continue to allow us to grow and evolve this center.