Can AI Be the Ultimate Nurse's Ally? SDSU's Rebecca Mattson Thinks So

Nurses Week 2025: Where Compassion Meets Code
As we celebrate National Nurses Week, San Diego State University’s Rebecca Mattson is rewriting the playbook for modern nursing. By merging artificial intelligence with clinical expertise, she’s tackling two silent killers: late-stage lung cancer diagnoses and inadequate maternal nutrition. Could this be the future of patient care? Let’s dive in.

🌡️ The Silent Crisis: Why Timing Is Everything

• Lung cancer’s fatal delay: Current screening methods often catch tumors too late, when survival rates plummet below 20%
• Metabolic domino effect: Undiagnosed metabolic syndrome (linked to heart disease/stroke) hides in plain sight during routine checkups
• Pregnancy nutrition gaps: Generic dietary advice fails 1 in 4 mothers, impacting fetal development and long-term child health

✅ The AI Prescription: Faster Diagnoses, Smarter Nutrition
Mattson’s team—including math whiz Uduak George—is building a healthcare revolution:

• 🔍 Lung cancer radar: AI trained on 100,000+ anonymized health records spots patterns even seasoned doctors might miss
• 🤰 Real-time pregnancy coach: Machine learning tailors nutrition plans by analyzing individual biomarkers and lifestyle factors
• 🔄 Clinical guardrails: Mattson cross-checks every algorithm against current nursing protocols to prevent "AI hallucination"

"This isn’t about replacing nurses," Mattson insists. "It’s about giving us superhuman pattern recognition so we can focus on what humans do best—care."

⚠️ The Human Hurdles: Where Silicon Valley Meets Scrubs

• 🚧 Data dilemmas: Training AI on sensitive health records requires Fort Knox-level security (and patient trust)
• ⏳ Adoption inertia: Busy clinics may resist adding "another dashboard" to their workflow
• 🤖 Algorithmic bias: Will models trained on historical data perpetuate existing healthcare disparities?

George acknowledges the tightrope walk: "Our models are only as good as the data we feed them. That’s why Rebecca’s clinical perspective is irreplaceable."

🚀 Final Diagnosis: AI’s Make-or-Break Moment in Nursing
Mattson’s work could redefine 21st-century nursing if:

• 📈 Hospitals buy in: Pilot programs must prove time savings > tech learning curves
• ❤️ Patients feel heard: Apps should enhance—not replace—the nurse’s healing touch
• 🌐 Scaling with soul: Solutions designed for San Diego must adapt to rural clinics worldwide

The big question: Would YOU trust an AI co-pilot if it gave your nurse more time to hold your hand?

Let us know on X (Former Twitter)

Sources: SDSU News. How an SDSU Nurse-Scientist Is Transforming Health Care With AI, May 2025. https://www.sdsu.edu/news/2025/05/how-an-sdsu-nurse-scientist-is-transforming-health-care-with-ai