Heart Disease and AI

Michael Mauceri, Verrazzano Class of 2020, Completed Major in Computer Science with a Minor in Mathematics

My capstone project was about diagnosing heart disease in patients using Machine Learning, which is a branch of artificial intelligence. I was originally a Nursing major and switched to Computer Science, and I wanted to do research related to the medical field for my project. I had never taken a course or had any experience in Machine Learning, and this research seemed like a great time to dive into this topic because it works well with medical data. I assumed my research would be quick, but the rabbit hole became deeper and deeper, and soon I was knee deep with information about Machine Learning and Data Mining. I became very overwhelmed with the amount of information about the topic but over a few months, it became easier to focus on what was important.

            My research involved analyzing whether a computer could do a better job at diagnosing heart disease without using testing that involved radiation, which is expensive and invasive to patients. This became complicated, as I did not know all the medical terms included in the research and needed to consult a nurse. This part of the research was also interesting because as I asked the nurse questions, I ended up with not only more information, but even more questions about how they treat diseases that affect the human heart.

Had there been even more time to do the research I would have continued by looking for more patient data than what I had started with. I also would have consulted doctors or heart specialists for more information about heart diseases and their causes. I would have also liked to use more Machine Learning algorithms that were more modern and more efficient in data processing. Although I did not enjoy writing the research paper, it was very rewarding to finish and seeing it completed made me feel extremely proud of myself.