AI Playing Critical Role in Stroke Treatments at FL Hospital

Doctor showing a cell phone
Dr. Lowell Dawson, a neuro-interventional radiologist, displays images of the brain of a stroke patient on his cellphone. The images were transmitted from Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital using VizAI, an app and artificial intelligence program that helps on-call specialists guide emergency department physicians on caring for stroke patients. The software has speeded up the gap between arriving at the ER and receiving treatment by 30%.

Christopher O’Donnell – Tampa Bay Times

ST. PETERSBURG — Dr. Lowell Dawson was home celebrating his birthday when his cell phone beeped, a noise it only sounds when a possible stroke patient has arrived in the emergency department at Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital.

Ana Cortes, 87, had fallen at her St. Petersburg home. Her left side wasn’t functional. Within minutes, Dawson, an interventional neuro-interventional radiologist, was reviewing high resolution images from a CT scan of Cortes’ brain on an app on his cellphone.

The head scan showed no internal brain bleeding. Other images showed a lack of blood flow in one area of the brain, suggesting a possible blood clot.

Using the same app, Dawson sent instructions to emergency department doctors to administer a strong anticoagulant while he rushed to the hospital.

The clot likely meant part of the brain was being denied oxygen rich blood. Every minute of delay could result in roughly 2 million brain cells being permanently lost.

Bayfront treats around 700 stroke victims per year, Dawson said. The software, known as VizAI, has become a critical part of its emergency response protocol over the past two years.

Developed by a San Francisco software company, VizAI can be connected to CT scans, electrocardiograms and echocardiograms and transmit images to on-call specialists. It also uses artificial intelligence software to analyze the images and flag potential critical cases such as large-vessel occlusions, the term for a blocked artery.

Since adopting the platform, the hospital has reduced the delay between a patient arriving and the administering of blood-clot medication or the start of interventional surgery by 30%, Dawson said. The use of the app has also speeded up how quickly additional scans of blood vessels are performed when preliminary images don’t yield an obvious diagnosis.

“In a stroke patient, time is brain,” Dawson said. “The quicker we can identify a patient that has a stroke, the quicker we can treat them, and VizAI helps us cut down that time.”

The app also gives Dawson access to view the patient’s vital signs, such as pulse and blood pressure, and their medical history.

During an emergency, stroke neurologists are also evaluating the patient remotely using VizAI with hands-on examinations being conducted by emergency department physicians and nurses, Dawson said.

“So those of us who are not in the hospital, now we know exactly what’s going on with the patient,” he said.

VizAI is used at more than 1,400 hospitals in the United States and Europe. The AI software that analyzes scan imagery and flags potential blocked arteries is very accurate but not foolproof, Dawson said. Every diagnosis is made by a qualified doctor.

Almost 800,000 U.S. residents suffer strokes every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One in every six heart-related deaths is due to stroke.

Cortes’ stroke occurred when she was watching television one evening in October 2022. She started to drool, tried to stand and fell, her face striking a table, said Mike Ramos. Her face was droopy on one side, a common stroke symptom.

His brother, Richard Ramos, called 911 and then his brother, who lived close by.

An ambulance rushed Cortes to Bayfront where she was quickly taken to an intervention lab. Dawson inserted a catheter through her groin to reach the middle cerebral artery where the clot was located. A stent was used to open the vein and the clot was removed.

After the procedure, Dawson went to her family in the waiting room and showed them the video of blood returning to the part of their mother’s brain that had been deprived.

“My brother and I were in shock,” Mike Ramos said of watching the video. “He pushes this blood clot — you could see all the blood go to the veins in her head and she came to life.”

Cortes was able to return home after four days. Scans show that only a tiny portion of her brain cells died as a result of oxygen deprivation, Dawson said. Crucially, she was given “clot-busting” medication within three hours of her stroke and has not experienced any loss of functionality.

Her family have no doubt that she has made a full recovery.

“She’s back to her normal, crazy, nagging ways which I love,” Mike Ramos said.

©2025 Tampa Bay Times. Visit tampabay.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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