Healthcare and Aviation: Perspectives on Alerts, Machine Learning, and Future Directions

The fields of healthcare and aviation can learn from one another about alerts and their potential for effective application through predictive analytics. We conducted a series of interactive discussions between an expert in alerts in aviation cockpits and graduate students specializing in the application of machine learning in healthcare, and particularly with respect to image analysis. We present our findings regarding insights for healthcare on alerts and for aviation on machine learning. Our findings suggest that ‘opening up the black box’ is important for highly skilled pilots to be able to process recommendations from complex algorithms in aviation, and that considering whether an alert or alarm is ‘actionable’ is important when directing the attention of nurses caring for more than one patient at a time in a hospital environment.