Chapter 366 - 249: The Kill Shot

The entire room was completely stunned by his thunderous declaration.

Jiang He's voice wasn't loud, but it was deafening.

This was a straight-up, point-blank ultimate—a direct slap across the face of Johns Hopkins University!

Keep in mind, cameras from numerous medical media outlets were recording the event live.

Once those words were out, there was no turning back.

Here today, only one of them—Jiang He or Miller—was walking away unscathed.

Miller's face darkened.

Hayes and Carter were on pins and needles, like startled puppies with their fur standing on end.

Question: What should you do when you feel like your new year isn't off to a lucky start?

Answer: Go find Hayes and Carter.

Because they'll wish you: "Woof, woof woof!"

In the front row, several European scholars exchanged glances. They looked serious, but they were actually thrilled.

The human tendency to enjoy drama is universal, even in the highest echelons of academia.

—Coming to this conference today was the right call. That's fricking interesting!

The student section in the back finally reacted, erupting in a series of low gasps.

"What is he saying?"

"Accusing a Hopkins professor of plagiarism? Here?"

"He's insane. This guy from China is insane."

"Who gave him the nerve?"

On stage, the session chairman's face was grim as he issued a stern warning, "Mr. Jiang, please cease your remarks immediately! This is Johns Hopkins University, a serious international academic conference. Malicious accusations and personal attacks without solid proof will not be tolerated here. If you continue to deviate from the scope of an academic presentation, I will be forced to cut your microphone and have security intervene."

The chairman's pressure managed to quell some of the commotion in the audience.

But now, many people looked at Jiang He with hostility in their eyes.

What right did a young doctor from a developing country have to spout such nonsense at Hopkins?

In their eyes, this was clearly an unreasonable outburst, an emotional breakdown after having his paper rejected.

Just then, Miller slowly stood up.

The old coot's control over his expression was impeccable, as if he were a trained actor.

He had already regained his lofty composure. With a helpless smile at those around him, he spoke magnanimously, "Mr. Chairman, it's alright. Let him speak."

The chairman frowned. "Professor Miller, this is a serious violation of conference rules."

"I know. However, since Mr. Jiang has come all this way and harbors such a deep misunderstanding of our review, I'm willing to give him a chance to present. I also want our colleagues here to see for themselves what fatal flaws this paper truly contains. Mr. Jiang, you may begin your model presentation. But remember, science believes in data, not emotions."

As soon as Miller finished speaking, a wave of admiring murmurs swept through the audience.

"Professor Miller is so gracious."

"Now that's the magnanimity of a top scholar. Time to teach this arrogant young man a lesson."

"..."

On the stage, Jiang He shot Miller an interested look.

'The old fox is quite the actor.'

'Let's see if you can maintain this dignified facade for much longer.'

He gestured for Su Zhi to change the slide and got straight to the point.

"Early prediction of severe acute pancreatitis has always been a clinical challenge. The traditional Ranson score takes 48 hours to complete its assessment. The APACHE II score, while comprehensive, has extremely low sensitivity for pancreatic necrosis and organ failure within the first 12 hours of admission. My model, however, is based on the patient's dynamic blood biochemical indicators and shortens the prediction window for high-risk cases to within six hours of admission."

"In the validation set, the model's area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve—the AUC value—reached an astonishing 0.915. At the same time, in subgroups of pancreatitis induced by different etiologies, whether biliary, lipid-induced, or alcoholic, the model's sensitivity remained above 88%."

Jiang He was perfectly calm, speaking with eloquence and confidence.

From his flawless English pronunciation to the unhurried, logical rhythm of his speech, there was nothing to fault.

The murmurs from the foreign scholars who had been expecting a show gradually died down.

When an expert makes a move, you know it's the real deal.

The maturity of this model and the robustness of its data far exceeded their expectations.

A question arose in many of their minds:

'If this was truly the model Jiang He submitted, how could it possibly have been rejected?'

A flicker of gloom passed through the depths of Miller's eyes.

He shot a subtle glance at Hayes and Carter beside him.

Carter understood immediately and raised his hand.

A staff member handed him a microphone.

"Dr. Jiang, since you claim your model can make accurate predictions within six hours of admission, I happen to have a real clinical case file here. I'd like to ask how you would explain it."

"The patient: a 35-year-old female, 28 weeks pregnant, admitted for sudden, severe upper abdominal pain accompanied by nausea and vomiting for three hours. She has a prior history of familial hypertriglyceridemia. Upon admission, her serum triglyceride level was as high as 25 mmol/L, with a BMI of 34. Two hours after admission, she developed Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome, or SIRS. Her vital signs were: heart rate of 130 beats per minute, respiratory rate of 28 breaths per minute, and a white blood cell count of 18×10^9/L."

"Based on clinical experience, this is a case of severe lipid-induced pancreatitis complicated by pregnancy. The patient is highly likely to develop Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, or ARDS, and multiple organ failure within the next 24 hours."

"However, within the first six hours of this patient's admission, her C-reactive protein, or CRP, was only 15 mg/L, and her procalcitonin, or PCT, was even less than 0.5 ng/mL."

"Dr. Jiang, if we input these early indicators into your model, the conclusion would be mild pancreatitis, low risk. If we were to use your model to guide clinical practice, this young mother and her child would miss the most critical window for intervention. Your model, when faced with such a complex, overlapping metabolic state, not only has a blind spot—it has a fatal blind spot. This is the fundamental reason we rejected your paper!"