Cardiology is one of the most evidence-intensive medical specialties, with large randomized controlled trials and regularly updated guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association shaping nearly every treatment decision. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death globally, responsible for approximately 17.9 million deaths per year according to the World Health Organization. In the United States alone, the CDC reports that heart disease causes one death approximately every 33 seconds. Clinical decision support AI addresses the challenge of keeping pace with this volume of evidence by providing instant access to risk calculators such as the CHA2DS2-VASc score for atrial fibrillation stroke risk, the HEART score for chest pain evaluation, and the TIMI risk score for acute coronary syndrome.
The treatment landscape in cardiology is particularly complex, with guideline-directed medical therapy for heart failure alone involving multiple drug classes (ACE inhibitors or ARNIs, beta-blockers, mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists, and SGLT2 inhibitors) that must be individually titrated based on patient hemodynamics and renal function. A 2021 study in JAMA Cardiology found that only 1.2% of eligible heart failure patients were on all four pillars of guideline-directed therapy at optimal doses. CDS tools that surface current ACC/AHA guideline recommendations and flag gaps in treatment help cardiologists ensure that patients receive evidence-based care. AI-assisted imaging interpretation for echocardiography and cardiac CT is also an emerging use case where clinical decision support can improve diagnostic accuracy and workflow efficiency.