TIME’s new 100-person ranking of the most influential figures in AI includes Suchi Saria, the Johns Hopkins computer scientist whose software watches hospital data for early signs of sepsis.
Saria is an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering and founder of Bayesian Health, which commercializes the tool, known as the Targeted Real-Time Early Warning System, or TREWS. Sepsis, the widespread inflammation that can trigger rapid organ failure, kills about 270,000 people in the US each year. Hospital evidence gathered on TREWS points to an 18% drop in deaths among patients it flags.
TREWS won clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration earlier this year. Its research roots reach back to a 2015 paper in Science Translational Medicine, with a follow-up study in Nature Medicine in 2022. Funding came from the National Science Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
The September 7 edition of the magazine carries the ranking. Its editors and reporters compiled the list after a year of AI coverage and consultation with experts and industry leaders. Saria’s work also appeared on CNN this week in a segment with Jake Tapper, cementing her role as one of the most visible researchers pushing AI early-warning systems into routine hospital care.
