New AI imaging from Indian start-up tackles TB diagnosis
Qure.ai, a health tech start-up in Mumbai, India, has developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered technology able to analyze x-rays, MRI and CT scans to identify and improve disease diagnosis, according to a Feb. 12 report from Livemint.com.
The new AI will incorporate deep learning algorithms to highlight abnormalities in various medical images and improve the diagnosis of diseases, especially tuberculosis (TB). India accounts for 27 percent of the world's TB cases, according to the report.
“[The AI] is based on artificial neural networks which are trained by showing an algorithm a wide variety of cases, which is in some ways like how one would train a radiologist,” said Prashant Warier, Qure-ai’s co-founder and CEO, in the article. “We have shown the algorithm 1.5 million x-rays, some normal and others abnormal and trained them to understand what an abnormality would look like. Techniques like deep learning have made it possible to automatically identify multiple disease states from a medical image."
Warier and his team of computer scientists, medical practitioners and bioinformaticians believe that the AI technology will make medical imaging faster, more effective and more efficient in India, which currently has a substantial shortage of certified practicing radiologists.
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.