Penn researchers recently unveiled an artificial intelligence platform that allows patients with epilepsy to communicate directly with their medical devices.
The platform, released in an Oct. 13 study, will enable patients to receive real-time information about their brain activity and potential oncoming seizures. Bioengineering professor Brian Litt worked with a team to develop the program, which aims to shift health monitoring capabilities to patients rather than solely their physicians.
The platform addresses a limitation of existing medical devices by improving the communication between the medical data collected and the patients themselves, according to Litt.
Through a mobile application, patients can exchange messages with an AI assistant that analyzes their neurological data. The system notifies patients of potential seizures, provides information about their brain activity, and asks questions about symptoms or behaviors that may affect their health.
“Your medical device might text you and say, ‘What did you do? Your probability of having a seizure just went up by 60%,’” Litt said in a January interview. “And you might have had a beer, or taken a new antibiotic or something like that.”
The study involved 13 patients undergoing continuous brain monitoring at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Participants exchanged 1,307 messages with the platform, asking questions about their seizures, sleep patterns, and other health information.
In the future, the team believes this platform can be applied broadly to patients with other conditions that require technological devices — including cardiac devices and insulin pumps.
During a higher education and research showcase on Tuesday, Litt described the new platform as the product of a collaboration between Penn’s medical and engineering schools that began over a decade ago. He credited Penn President Larry Jameson — who served as Perelman School of Medicine dean at the time — with helping establish the initiative that eventually became Penn’s Center for Neuroengineering and Therapeutics.
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Jameson opened the showcase by emphasizing the “real power” of “the intermixing of disciplines” within research — describing how collaborations between faculty across the University can lead to “some of the greatest breakthroughs.”
Two other notable presentations at the event focused on the implications of AI in financial markets and the use of emerging technologies in agriculture.
Wharton professor Itay Goldstein presented research examining the risks of AI-powered trading systems — including simulations in which autonomous agents developed manipulative trading strategies despite not communicating with one another.
“What we basically find is that collusion emerges among AI agents trading in financial markets,” Goldstein said, raising questions about how regulators can detect anti-competitive behavior as the technology becomes more prominent in financial markets.
Penn Engineering professor Cherie Kagan showcased agricultural technologies designed to improve crop productivity while reducing resource consumption, including biodegradable sensors and robots that monitor plant health and collect data for farmers.
“We’re really good at nano, we’re really good at robotics here, and those are tools,” Kagan said. “But the part is to do it for society, and that’s the farming part.”
