Duke data scientist launches startup to help hospitals adopt AI

Casey Ross covers the use of artificial intelligence in medicine and its underlying questions of safety, fairness, and privacy.

Mark Sendak was getting tired of seeing the toil of so many colleagues go to waste.

At Duke University, he was part of a team of data scientists and engineers who built artificial intelligence tools to help make better health care decisions, and to more effectively treat patients with serious and life-threatening conditions. 

But even when one of their inventions appeared to help patients and generated positive results in scientific studies, it never gained uptake beyond Duke’s walls. Patients and doctors in other health systems didn’t get the opportunity to benefit.