Smart CT image-reading system speeds coronavirus diagnosis
Developed by the company’s smart health care unit of its subsidiary Ping An Smart City, the CT image-reading system assists doctors with efficient and accurate diagnoses by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and could help control the epidemic through earlier diagnoses and treatment.
“Since its launch, the smart image-reading system has provided services to more than 1,500 medical institutions,” says Geoff Kau, Co-President and Chief Strategy Officer of Ping An Smart City. “More than 5,000 patients have received smart image-reading services for free. The system can generate smart analysis results in around 15 seconds, with an accuracy rate above 90%.”
By comparison, says Kau, it usually takes radiologists about 15 minutes to read the CT images of a patient suspected of contracting COVID-19. While the primary test for diagnosing the Coronavirus is the Nucleic Acid Test, it can suffer from long detection times and a high proportion of false negative cases, says the company, so many doctors have been using CT scans of lungs for diagnosis.
But there is a lack of radiologists in epidemic areas to review the volume of CT imaging. The company’s COVID-19 smart image-reading system aims to close the gap.
Ping An Smart Healthcare used clinical data to train the AI model of the COVID-19 smart image-reading system. The AI analysis engine can conduct a comparative analysis of multiple CT scan images of the same patient and measure the changes in lesions.
The system, says the company, helps doctors to track the development of the disease, evaluate the treatment, and have prognosis of patients, and ultimately assists doctors to diagnose, triage, and evaluate COVID-19 patients swiftly and effectively. The system also supports AI image-reading remotely by medical professionals outside the epidemic areas.
Medical institutions that require COVID-19 smart image-reading services can also gain access on public or private cloud platforms or on premises. The public or private cloud platforms support storing and sharing electronic film. The smart image-reading system can also be quickly transplanted to CT equipment with the help of manufacturers to assist diagnosing the COVID-19.
“Patients with COVID-19 need multiple CT scans during the treatment,” says Dr. Xiao Jing, Chief Scientist of Ping An. “Comparing multiple images is a time-consuming task and it cannot be accurately completed manually. Utilizing Ping An Smart Healthcare’s COVID-19 smart image-reading system, it can effectively improve the diagnostic accuracy and the doctor’s image-reading efficiency.”
Related articles:
Algorithm beats radiologists in diagnosing x-rays
FDA clears embedded AI on mobile X-ray device
DARPA award to speed detection of disease outbreaks
Machine learning speeds search for unknown viruses
Bioscience researchers get $1M to develop portable medical sensors
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
