New AI Tool Predicts Heart Attacks With Unmatched Precision
Heart disease remains the world’s leading cause of death, but a new AI-driven tool may finally give doctors an edge in predicting heart attacks before they strike.
Researchers at The University of Western Australia, in partnership with medical technology company Artrya, have developed a fully automated algorithm that can assess heart attack risk more accurately than current clinical methods. The AI scans coronary CT angiograms and detects dangerous plaque buildup, inflammation, and early signs of vulnerable arteries, often before symptoms even appear.
While current risk assessments focus largely on cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and family history, they often miss subtle signs of heart disease in otherwise “low-risk” patients. The new AI tool changes that by analyzing key features inside artery walls, features that can’t be reliably seen or interpreted by the human eye alone.
“This technology can see what cardiologists can’t, and it does it in seconds,” said Professor Girish Dwivedi, the study’s lead author and a consultant cardiologist at UWA’s Medical School.
What makes the tool so groundbreaking is its speed and automation. It doesn’t just help experts, it can be used in routine hospital settings, processing scans with consistent, bias-free accuracy, and flagging high-risk patients for immediate follow-up.
In preliminary trials, the AI’s predictions were significantly better at identifying patients who went on to suffer major cardiac events than traditional tools like the Framingham Risk Score.
This means that patients with hidden vulnerabilities could get preventative treatment earlier, potentially avoiding life-threatening events entirely. In the future, it could also help personalize treatment plans based on real-time risk data.
The researchers hope to integrate the tool into clinical practice within the next year, with potential for wider international adoption after further validation.
As heart disease continues to claim millions of lives each year, tools like this could finally turn the tide, not by treating damage after the fact, but by catching it before it happens.