Politico (6/25, Ravindranath) reports, “The Department of Veterans Affairs is using artificial intelligence to figure out which veterans are in critical need of mental health treatment as part of a massive effort to stem suicide in its ranks.” Now, “a computer program scours millions of records for medications, treatment, traumatic events, overall health and other information, and based on prior experience, it plucks out the names of veterans most likely to die by suicide in the next year.” Next, “clinicians…reach out to them directly, sometimes before the patient has expressed suicidal thoughts to anyone.” The VA now “believes that its algorithms have reduced suicides by vulnerable veterans.”
Related Links:
— “How the VA uses algorithms to predict suicide, “Mohana Ravindranath, Politico, June 25, 2019