AI, breast imaging startup joins fight in alleviating UK’s radiologist shortage

Kheiron Medical, an artificial intelligence (AI) medical imaging start-up based in London, is the latest company to announce its research efforts in using AI to identify signs of breast cancer from mammograms and help alleviate the U.K.’s current radiologist shortage.  

The company's deep learning-based algorithm will be tested on “historic scans” at an NHS hospital in northern England, according to a recent article by the Financial Times.  

The algorithm was trained on half a million mammograms from hospitals in Hungary, according to the article. Kheiron has also already submitted its findings for peer review, concluding that its technology outperformed human radiologists in detecting breast cancer from 3,500 scans.  

Last year, a clinical U.K. workforce census report found the NHS spent $150 million outsourcing patient scans to cope with the radiologist shortage. Additionally, the report concluded that outsourcing costs have more than doubled in the last three years and the U.K. is predicted to be short of almost 2,000 radiologists by the year 2022. 

Read the Financial Times' entire article below. 

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A recent graduate from Dominican University (IL) with a bachelor’s in journalism, Melissa joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering all aspects of health imaging. She’s a fan of singing and playing guitar, elephants, a good cup of tea, and her golden retriever Cooper.

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