Spotting Abuse in Emergency Reports: AI's Role

Abusive head trauma, a severe child abuse injury, is a major killer of young kids. Doctors often rely on basic patient info from Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to spot these cases. But what if there's more to the story? Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLM) can dig deeper into EMS notes to find subtle signs of abuse. Researchers wanted to use AI and LLM to better detect abuse in EMS reports about young children. Emergency medics write detailed notes about the children they treat. These notes can hold clues that aren't found in the standard patient info. AI can analyze these notes to find patterns or signs that might suggest abuse. For instance, vague symptoms, unusual injuries, or certain behaviors could all be red flags. The goal is to train AI to recognize these hidden signs. By doing so, medics and doctors can catch abuse earlier and save lives. It's like giving a magnifying glass to the EMS team, helping them see what's not immediately obvious.