AI Shown To Improve Diagnosis Of Inherited Retinal Disease

 

Doctor Holding Red Heart In Hands. Healthcare And Medical Concep

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been used a lot to support the medical sector, including helping to diagnose inherited retinal diseases (IRD).

The European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) has revealed researchers have used AI to develop a system that can identify the cause of IRDs from scans of the retina, improving the efficiency of testing. 

This will also enable more centres to provide tests to those exhibiting symptoms. 

Group leader at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital Dr Nikolas Pontikos revealed the development of Eye2Gene.

“Identifying the causative gene from a retinal scan is considered extremely challenging, even by experts. However, the AI is able to achieve this to a higher level of accuracy than most human experts,” he stated. 

Eye2Gene could eventually become part of a standard retinal examination. While it would likely start out as an ‘assistant’ to provide a second opinion, it may eventually be used by itself as a diagnostic tool. 

Speaking at the annual conference of the ESHG on June 10th, Dr Pontikos added: “We hope that AI will help patients and their families by making specialist care more efficient, accessible, and equitable.”

IRDs are caused by defect genes, which can result in the deterioration of eyesight, even leading to blindness. 

Currently, IRDs are diagnosed by an ophthalmologist, who looks at the patient and family history, and conducts an eye examination.

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NHS Pilots Artificial Intelligence To Cut Missed Appointments

Missed hospital appointments cost the NHS millions of pounds every year, which is why it is piloting artificial intelligence (AI) software to reduce the number of incidents.

AI will use algorithms, data, and external insights, such as weather, traffic, and jobs, to determine the likelihood of a missed appointment, so that a booking is arranged for a more convenient time. This will lower the probability of the patient missing their slot. 

It also provides back-up bookings, so no appointment is wasted, increasing efficiency of the health service. 

Chief executive of the NHS Amanda Pritchard said: “[The new pilot] shows the NHS testing the latest technological advancements to address the real world challenges we face.”

She added: “The system will help ensure patients receive ‘smart’ appointments, that are convenient and fit into people’s increasingly busy lives.”

The scheme is being trialled in Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, where there is an average did not attend (DNA) rate of eight per cent. Data will be collected and analysed to determine whether the DNA will improve with the AI.

It is hoped an extra 80-100,000 patients will be able to be seen at the Trust every year, as a result of the technology. 

Every year, eight million appointments are missed, costing the NHS around £1.2 billion. 

The new software could help the health service reduce its huge backlog of patients waiting for appointments. It was recently revealed that 39,903 people are currently waiting more than 18 months for a referral. 

If this pilot is successful, AI technology could become more commonplace in the NHS, from being used as a diagnostic tool to remote radiology reporting.

How AI Is Used In Medicine

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an incredible tool that can achieve some amazing results if used correctly. Perhaps one of the most groundbreaking uses for AI is in medicine and advancements could change the world of medicine forever.

AI is relevant to so many different aspects of life and the general public even has access to it at this point. There are many different versions of AI out there and tailoring them to be used within the medical sphere has been incredibly helpful.

One way we can utilise AI in medicine is to help with detecting and diagnosing diseases. AI can be used to minter and observe patients around the clock. This helps to reduce the need for doctors and nurses to be constantly monitoring patients.

AI is also able to collect information about the patient and therefore detect issues as they arise, meaning doctors can be alerted to signs of disease early and help to treat it. This constant monitoring of patients could help in catching issues earlier and therefore treating them better.

AI can also be used in clinical imaging. AI is able to analyse images and locate and detect signs of various conditions such as cancer. 

This is a great advancement as AI is able to study these images far quicker than a human would be able to, which can help in speeding along the process of imaging analysis and therefore diagnosis.

Another way AI can be used in medicine is by improving the efficiency and organisation of clinical trials. AI is able to quickly store and analyse medical results and can find information far quicker, meaning clinicians wouldn’t have to spend as long searching for the correct results and medical code.

AI is also able to detect similarities in results far quicker and compile the similarities and differences in patient responses to new drugs and vaccines meaning trials could be completed much more quickly and efficiently.

Rounded Heart Images Could Indicate Cardiovascular Disease

Medical images of rounded hearts could be an early sign of cardiovascular disease.

The National Institutes of Health revealed research in the journal Med that suggests analysis of pictures of the shape of hearts could become a diagnostic tool. 

David Ouyang, co-corresponding author or the study and a Smidt Heart Institute of Cedars-Sinair cardiologist, said: “These findings might allow physicians to gain greater clinical intuition on how patients are likely to do at a very rapid glance.”

The scientists used the shape and measurements of heart chambers, as well as anatomical changes, to determine a heightened risk of cardiomyopathy or other heart ailments.

They used machine learning and big data for their study, looking at the UK Biobank, which has clinical and genetic information on around half a million people. The researchers examined 38,000 participants who had normal MRI images of their hearts and made a correlation with those who went on to develop heart diseases based on subsequent medical records. 

They discovered that those who had increased cardiac sphericity had a greater chance of future heart problems. There was also a link between the genetic drivers for heart roundness and cardiomyopathy. 

Using deep-learning analysis, they determined that intrinsic heart muscle disease resulted in cardiac sphericity. 

Mr Ouyang added: “Just as we’ve previously known that a bigger heart isn’t always better, we’re learning that a rounder heart is also not better.”

More data taken from medical imaging storage is required for greater analysis, according to the scientists, including ultrasound images instead of MRI screenings to see if these confirm what they have found already.

If further research can be carried out, this could help the 7.6 million people living with heart and circulatory diseases in the UK. It may also help to reduce the number of heart disease-related fatalities from one person every three minutes.

Genomics England Uses Medical Imaging For Cancer Research

Brain Disease Diagnosis With Medical Doctor Seeing Magnetic Reso

Genomics England has revealed it will enhance its cancer research programme by accessing a medical image storage system.

The organisation, which looks at genetics to find causes of diseases and create new treatments, will use the technology in conjunction with NHS data for its multimodal cancer research platform, Digital Health reported. 

Director of clinical data and imagine and Caldicott Guardian for Genomics England Dr Prabhu Arumugam said: “The imaging system is already a very recognisable interface in NHS clinical settings, but we are using it in new ways.”

It was added: “It will help us to harness imaging that we can then match to our genomic data, whilst de-identifying data to ensure confidentiality.”

It will transport images from NHS trusts that are participating in the programme, enabling Genomics England to find patterns in genome sequencing, pathology and radiology data. 

This will provide a better understanding of cancers, which could help with the development of treatments. It could also lead to the creation of cancer-targeting artificial intelligence (AI) in the future. 

Dr Arumugam stated the cloud-based research platform will enable more people, other than bioinformaticians, to access data regarding genomics, pathology and radiology. 

Around 250,000 pathology images and 200,000 radiology scans from 30 NHS Trusts will be included in the data acquisition. 

After these are matched with genomics information, the researchers will be able to investigate what the markers are for cancer, helping with diagnoses and treatments. 

This comes after Genomics was given £175 million in funding for the research of rare genetic conditions in newborns, which it hopes will lead to earlier detection and quicker access to medical intervention.

How Stable Diffusion Could Advance Medical Imaging

medical imaging doctor examining screen

As the use of medical imaging grows, the work involved can be more specialised and means that getting enough training to help make the best use of medical imagining solutions is a challenge.

However, new developments may help make this task easier, including a new innovation that follows on from one devised and launched only last year.

As Venturebeat reports, the launch last August of Stable Diffusion, a text-to-image foundational model, by Stability AI, prompted an idea from Stanford University radiologist Christian Bluethgen. He asked whether in fact it was possible to combine a genuine medical need with the creating of high quality images using basic text prompts.

The result was his collaboration with Stanford Graduate student Pierre Chambon, a mathematical and computational engineering researcher, which led to a study designed to establish the capacity of stable diffusion to generate X-rays. To their delight, they found it achieved this task very well.

All this, Mr Bluethgen, will help with the training of medics who might otherwise see very few scans relevant to their specialist area. He observed: “When you are working in a setting with scarce data, your performance correlates with experience – the more images you see, the better you become.”

Such a development may be just one indication of how better use of data technology is enabling medical imaging to be used with increasing effectiveness as a diagnostic tool, with improved training further boosting the capacity of specialists to identify medical problems when they emerge.

A further development in X-ray imaging may have emerged at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. In a paper published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers have revealed how a new algorithm has been devised that can enhance images of hydrogen fuel cells. It notes that the very same technique could be used to improve medical imaging.

Could Cloud Computing Lead To Health Equity?

world cloud medical

Cloud computing in healthcare could help balance the disparity between medical services around the world.

Over the last few years, use of cloud services has increased in the healthcare sector. They have advanced to store medical images and data, while artificial intelligence (AI) is being used more frequently to enhance treatments, diagnostic tools, and preventative procedures.

Dr Rowland Illing, director and chief medical officer, International Public Sector Health at Amazon Web Services (AWS), told ITP that cloud computing can improve access to technology. This makes it easier for healthcare providers with lower budgets to benefit from AI tools.

“The true potential of cloud computing in healthcare lies in its ability to democratise access to critical data, advanced tools for machine learning and artificial intelligence, and to make these resources accessible to researchers, developers, and pharmaceutical companies globally,” he stated.

As cloud computing does not require on-premises computer resources and large investments in advanced technology, it means it is more accessible for everyone.

According to the World Health Organization health equity is only achieved when everyone is able to “attain their full potential for health and wellbeing”.

It revealed nearly a third (30 per cent) of the global population are still unable to access essential health services. This was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused disruption in health services in 92 per cent of nations.

The Universal Health Coverage (UHC) data stated that nearly two billion people currently face “catastrophic or impoverishing health spending”.

 

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How Cloud Storage Cost Savings Can Boost NHS

It will come as news to nobody that the NHS faces a tough winter. Fears of a ‘twindemic’ of high rates of Covid and flu infections, the backlog of operations caused by the pandemic remains and pay strikes among nurses and ambulance staff all speak of a health service under severe pressure.

Other outstanding cost concerns faced by the NHS include the high cost of agency staff, with doctors paid as much as £5,234 for a single shift according to data uncovered by the Labour Party in a Freedom of Information request, while many hospitals have outstanding maintenance issues as well. 

The question of just how much money could be needed to fix buildings, solve shortages of resources and settle pay disputes, alongside the question of where the money will come from, arises at a time when the UK is believed to have begun a protracted recession. 

Never has it been more important for cost-efficiency and the elimination of waste to be brought to bear on the NHS. That is where the low cost of cloud based medical imaging may be critical when keeping patient scans and other records, enabling easy access without high expense.

As Tech Radar reports, cloud storage specialists Backblaze have noted that hard disk drive prices have been falling, with prices now set to fall to as low as US$0.1 per GB of data. This compared to $0.11 in 2009.

Not only is this a rare example of something getting cheaper in a world beset by inflation, but also offers a considerable cost-saving opportunity to the NHS. While this alone will not solve all the problems, it will certainly help, not least by delivering better outcomes for patients, which is the whole point of the service in the first place.

While the NHS faces many challenges, it seems that at least the services the staff will use could include some cases of very low cost. 

University Institute Developing Three-Dimensional Ultrasound Devices

3d ultrasound devices

A team at the University of Illinois has been given a $2m grant to develop devices that can add 3D medical imaging capability to traditionally 2D ultrasound systems.

The FASTER project, led by the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, has been proposed as a way to make advanced three-dimensional imaging technologies more widely accessible without the need for dedicated and expensive CAT scanners or MRI machines.

Ultrasound, by contrast, is available in many diagnostic rooms along with X-rays, and thus is often one of the earliest forms of diagnostic imaging people will have taken when they see a doctor about a medical issue.

The concept behind ultrasound is similar to the system used by bats to perceive space and objects without sight. Bats emit a high-pitched ultrasonic sound wave that bounces off of objects and how that sound returns allows them to perceive and avoid obstacles in a process known as echolocation.

Ultrasound works similarly, typically using a probe or handheld devices to send a beam of ultrasonic waves around a part of the body, typically based on a known location such as a tumour or a foetus.

From this, the machine can determine the shape, size and location of the target in question and present that information. The only issue is that information is presented in two dimensions, which can make complex tissues, organs and tumours difficult to diagnose, often requiring several scans.

The proposed solution to this by the Beckman Institute is to use a clip-on device that attaches to the probe and instantly enables 3D ultrasound imaging in real-time.

A 3D ultrasound can capture the surrounding area, as well as the whole object, much in the same way a CAT scan does, and this can help doctors at a glance know exactly what kind of issue they are dealing with, in a way that is more cost-effective and thus more widely available.

Its first adaptation will be at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, with the hope that it can be more widely utilised based on its effectiveness.

How The Cloud Can Help When Disaster Strikes

Cloud Computing help

Disaster recovery is something every business or organisation needs to prepare for, whether it is a physical calamity on its premises like fire or flood, or a major data problem such as a power outage or cyber attack.

The capacity for cloud disaster recovery services to help is something many will have factored in when adopting the system. Buy storing and saving data in a particularly safe way it will ensure that medical imaging services are not disrupted and information from scans can still be sent to whichever practitioners need to see them.

Some may think an internet outage is an event that is unlikely to happen to them, especially with so many wireless services being available. But that is not always the case, especially in more remote corners of the UK.

Few places fit that description more than the Shetlands, which has just endured a loss of internet services as well as telecoms after two undersea cables connecting the islands to the mainland were damaged. These have now been fixed.

The incident followed another cable, linking the Shetlands with the Faroe Islands, also being damaged and affecting communications.

During this time, attempts to communicate with the mainland were futile, but any data stored in the cloud will have been safe, ensuring that once the cables were fixed it could be transmitted where necessary.

Because health services on the archipelago of 23,000 people are limited in scope, patients from the islands who need a scan – around 600 people a year – currently have to travel by ferry to Aberdeen to get one, so no scanning data would have been held up by the cable problems.

However, this situation is about to change. As Shetland News reports, NHS Shetland is moving its estates team to a site once occupied by the fish market in Lerwick to make space for the town’s Gilbert Bain Hospital to have a long-awaited MRI scanner fitted.