AI in medical imaging can identify COVID-19 presence based on chest CT scans with great accuracy. It is a known fact that more than two lakh people are deceased and the deadly disease is spreading rapidly. Early detection and timely treatment can control the spread of the disease. With cases around the globe increasing exponentially, diagnosing COVID-19 cases in quick time is a tough job with an available number of experienced radiologists.
Here we propose an artificial intelligence system for fast COVID-19 diagnosis with accuracy comparable to experienced radiologists. Deep learning enhances image diagnosis, speed, imaging cost, and safety. These systems rely on good imaging data to get trained. In this article, we discuss the top use cases that will help healthcare operations during medical emergencies like the novel coronavirus.
AI-Powered Medical Imaging
AI-centered radiology is becoming a recent trend and gaining more attention. Usually, physicians have to compromise on image quality for faster scan times. Recent research and developments have shown that AI can boost the power of low-quality scans by reducing noise and artifacts. These enhanced images provide an unrestricted view of the patient’s pathology to the physicians. And when AI is applied in clinical diagnosis, the quality, value, and accessibility of medical imaging are improved.
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1. Discovering thoracic complications and conditions:
Medical researchers have discovered that pneumonia is one of the common symptoms in people deceased with COVID-19. Pneumonia can be a life-threatening medical condition if left untreated. It is difficult for the radiologist to identify pneumonia if the patient has pre-existing lung conditions, such as malignancies or cystic fibrosis. In addition, ‘subtle pneumonia conditions’ can easily be overlooked and lead to unnecessary CT scans, where AI could help.
An AI algorithm could diagnose x-rays and other CT images for pieces of evidence of opacities that indicate pneumonia and alert healthcare providers for speedier treatments. The AI algorithms can analyze the severity of pneumothoraces and help to identify the urgency of treatment in the radiologist’s absence. Similarly, AI can help to identify high-risk patients when the pneumothorax is suspected. Further, the applications of AI are scalable to track the changes in the size of previously detected pneumothoraces and those under treatment.
The convolutional neural networks (CNN) are leveraged to extract COVID-19 graphical features from CT scans to provide clinical diagnosis ahead of a pathogenic test to save the critical time of disease diagnosis. As COVID-19 has similar characteristics to other types of pneumonia, it takes a long time for a specialist to diagnose. Thus AI-assisted diagnosis is highly desired. The CNN system can diagnose CT imagery in less than 30 seconds, with 96% accuracy according to the reports from Alibaba Group.
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2. Image segmentation to achieve the desired accuracy:
Image segmentation allows radiologists to accurately identify lung infection and promote quantitative analysis and diagnosis. Image segmentation highlights infected regions in the CT imagery for further assessment and quantification. It is hard to detect the infected regions with human eyes, as they could be small, with a variety of shapes and textures. Incorporating AI and computer vision can improve model sensitivity and accuracy without further repetitive computations.
Overview of AI system:
The application of AI in medical imaging is still unexplored. AI systems can provide great attention to detail while detecting or diagnosing an image. AI-powered decision support systems are enabling medical software to take more reliable decisions. AI-driven decision support software is leveraging computer-aided detection and computer-aided diagnosis tools that support a diagnosis by highlighting key areas in a scanned image.
The application of AI in the healthcare arena is more than a trend today. Because of medical emergencies, healthcare units are undergoing digital transformation. Integrating AI and data science technologies to optimize healthcare operations, medical imaging, virtual assistance, and care is a necessity today. We proudly introduce the AI-powered solution for medical imaging (chestX), aiming to provide quick insights and detect diseases with utmost accuracy. Our solution has advanced data science capabilities to meet emerging challenges and explores new opportunities ahead. To know more about our product and to book a demo, click here.
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