Perry Xu, MD, on the potential of AI in the endourology space

In a recent interview with Urology Times®, Perry Xu, MD, spoke about artificial intelligence’s potential in the field of endourology.

During the interview, Xu, assistant professor of urology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois, spoke about the increasing prevalence of kidney stones.

“There's about a 10% chance of making kidney stones as an American, and that's in contrast in the past, where it used to be as low as 3% in the 1970s,” Xu commented. With this growing prevalence, there is a need for innovations such as AI to help with patient care.

“I think we can really use AI in several different facets of endourology. One of them, I think …is how to actually intelligently triage patients and be able to get them in to see a urologist as soon as possible,” Xu said.

Another potential use of AI is to enhance currently available surgical treatment for kidney stones, according to Xu.

“There have been a lot of advancements in trying to find out stone compositions from video input alone, to better identify laser settings and how they can be modulated to better advance and treat stone disease in situ within the operation…there are a lot of new ideas and new measurements of intra renal pressures during kidney stone surgery as well, and how to actually use that to intelligently enhance the surgery as well,” Xu said.

A key element of kidney stone management is preventing them from forming in the first place, Xu said.

“I do think the most key thing for stone disease overall is prevention, because once we finish treating the stones, our patients don't want to make them again,” Xu said.

To this end, AI can also help with patient counseling regarding kidney stones; Xu mentioned that for patients who show a particular interest in their care, he recommends Dornier MedTech’s UroGPT tool.