Microsoft-AI diagnoses cervical cancer faster in India
In some cases, Artificial Intelligence assisted cancer detection might be more than a convenience where it could be the key to getting a diagnosis in the first place. Microsoft & SRL Diagnostics have developed an Artificial Intelligence tool that helps detect cervical cancer, freeing doctors in India and other countries where the sheer volume of patients could prove overwhelming. The research team trained an AI to spot signs of cancer by feeding it with “thousands” of annotated cervical smear images to help it spot abnormalities -including pre-cancerous examples- that warrant a closer look. Doctors would only have to look at those slides that justify real concern.
A framework for using Artificial Intelligence is now ready for an “internal preview” at SRL. It is not in use in the field just yet, then, but that is considerably better than other Artificial Intelligence cancer screening methods that typically don’t exist as more than experiments.
There is an incentive to put this into use quickly. TechCrunch noted that roughly about 67,000 women die of cervical cancer in India each year or more than a quarter of the deaths worldwide.
At the same time, there is just
a handful of doctors that can process pap smears and help women take action. SRL diagnostics alone receives over 100,000 samples per year, and 98 % of those are normal. Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence would let doctors focus on just the two percent of samples that are problematic and help women start treatment sooner.SRL Diagnostics– Microsoft consortium said they are very hopeful about their APIs and it could find application in other fields of pathology such as in the diagnosis of kidney pathologies and in oral, pancreatic & liver cancers. The consortium aims to expand its reach with more collaborations with private players & governments to expand the reach of the model even in the remote geographical areas where the availability of histopathologists is really a challenge.
The announcement this week is one of the latest examples of Microsoft’s ongoing research work in India. The world’s second-most populous nation has become a testbed for many American technology companies to build new products & services that solve local challenges as they look for their next billion users worldwide.
Editor’s Note: Microsoft Uses AI To Diagnose Cervical Cancer Faster In India, Microsoft-AI diagnoses cervical cancer faster in India, Microsoft and SRL Diagnostics have developed an AI tool that helps detect cervical cancer.
