AI Based Software to Develop Radiation Therapy Plans

It is a very time-consuming task for the doctors to develop radiation therapy plans for patients with tumors. In response to this issue, an engineering research graduate named Aaron Babier from the University of Toronto's Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, including Justin Boutilier, supervisor Professor Timothy Chan and Professor Andrea McNiven of U of T's Faculty of Medicine has developed an automation software that could reduce the time to mere hours.

This software uses artificial intelligence (AI) to mine radiation therapy data. This information is then proceeded for optimization to develop relevant treatment plans.

This AI based therapy achieved better results compared to patients' conventionally planned treatments within 20 minutes. The research team recently published these findings in Medical Physics.

Aaron Babier said, "There have been other AI optimization engines that have been developed. The idea behind ours is that it more closely mimics the current clinical best practice; Right now treatment planners have this big time sink. If we can intelligently burn this time sink, they'll be able to focus on other aspects of treatment. The idea of having automation and streamlining jobs will help make health-care costs more efficient. I think it'll really help to ensure high-quality care."  

Babier believes that with further commercialization, the physicians might someday use this tool in clinics.

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Theresa May Urges Medical Fraternity to Adopt AI For Acute Cancer Diagnosis

Positive news that holds hope for the medical fraternity and patients is the urging by UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, for the adoption of artificial intelligence by the NHS and technology companies to diagnose critical diseases such as cancer.

However, several impediments remain firmly entrenched in place for the implementation of AI. A greater need for investment into AI and research into how it can augment the efficacies of the technology needs to be looked into. In order to leverage the massive potential of AI, there is a greater need to enhance collaboration across diverse disciplines and geographies.

It is pertinent to note here that though great promise is held by AI, its power can only be optimized for the greater good through building purpose-initiated technological platforms that are scientifically and technologically advanced. The building of such platforms will require specialized data crunching in a varied, accurate and multidisciplinary manner and several years of training along with algorithm-building.

The move to initiate AI as a tool for the clinical diagnosis of cancer has the potential to save a lot of lives per year. However, this entails the need for extra clinicians, chiefly endoscopists who are in short supply, to be trained effectively and debuted into the cancer treatment pathway.

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AI to Replace Doctors and Nurses for Tasks

University College London Hospital (UCLH) and the Alan Turing Institute are working together on  Artificial Intelligence to carry out works which are traditionally done by the doctors and nurses; from deciding which accidental and emergency patients to be consulted first to diagnosing cancer on CT scan. The three-year partnership is aiming to bring the AI revolutions to the National Health Services in a larger scale.

“The new project can impact on patient outcomes, drawing parallels with the transformation of the consumer experience by companies such as Amazon and Google. It’s going to be a game-changer. You can go on your phone and book an airline ticket, decide what movies you’re going to watch or order a pizza. It’s all about AI. On the NHS, we’re nowhere near sophisticated enough. We’re still sending letters out, which is extraordinary” says Prof Bryan Williams, director of research at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

UCLH is investing a “significant” amount in the project, is the belief that AI can provide new ways of detecting illness, identifying people at higher risk of disease and directing resources. Like the clinicians can be positioned immediately onwards accordingly. The primary plan is to focus on improving the hospital’s accident and emergency department.

“Machines will never replace doctors, but the use of data, expertise, and technology can radically change how we manage our services – for the better,” said Prof Marcel Levi, UCLH chief executive.

Prof Chris Holmes, director for health at the Alan Turing Institute, said the hope is that doctors and nurses will be freed up to spend more time with patients. “We want to take out the more mundane stuff which is purely information driven and allow time for things the human expert is best at.“We’re critically aware of the patient sensitivity of data governance,” he said. “Any algorithms we develop will be purely in-house.”

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Israel Based Startup Raised $30 Million to Advance AI Devices For Radiologist

Israel based, startup Zebra Medical Vision, yesterday announced that it has received Series C funding of $30 million from healthcare tech fund aMoon Ventures and other investor members such as Johnson & Johnson Innovation and Aurum. To date, Zebra Medical has raised $50 million in total. The company is focusing on advancing the devices for radiologists through Deep Learning. With this new investment, Zebra is planning the new hires that can help pick up the pace of the development of its analytics engine and its GTM strategy

The startup also revealed its new research on Textray, which the company claims to be the “most comprehensive Artificial Intelligent research till now.” This is all working towards developing their new product which is currently capable of identifying 40 clinical findings as a result of training via 2 million images.

 “Zebra differentiate its approach at its computation from a holistic product view. Advancing an algorithm is different. But combining it into the workflow, modifying it to the wants of multiple healthcare environments and countries, updating and supporting it, takes tremendous attention and that’s what brings value, in addition to an algorithm.” stated  Elad Benjamin, Founder, and CEO- Zebra Medical Vision.

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HHS Selects 8 Accelerators for AI Innovation

The United States, Department of Human & Health Services has been aiming to enhance patient care andhealth security for a long period of time. Recently the HHS selected eight accelerators to steer artificial intelligence innovation. The chosen accelerators will develop AI devices to solve challenging problems in daily patient care and health security.

Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan stated that “Accelerators are part of a new business approach abs such kind of relation will assist startups and other businesses reshape the next generation of lifesaving techs and modify health security. That innovation is important to protecting Americans citizen and saving lives.”

Accelerators aim to innovative AI devices and products that can be advanced to solve trials in healthcare that can exceed traditional vaccine and medical development.

The HHS is currently looking for solutions for two challenges, the first is the lack of earlier detection of infections in patients which need to be solved and the second challenge is the acute demand for the detection of sepsis.

HHS has a new unit that is part of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), called DRIVe which is appointed to supervise the accelerator network. DRIVe is also perusing for the nonprofit partner that will associate with private investors to fund AI technologies and products that will encode the critical health security challenges.

The HHS foresees the development of AI tools will increase the solutions for some of healthcare’s biggest trials.

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FDA Approval for AI Enabled Diabetes Software

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval for a request made by DreaMed regarding their artificial intelligence-enabled diabetic software, which is exclusively meant for the providers, who are managing Type 1 diabetes patients.

Eran Atlas, the CEO of DreaMed said, “This is an innovation that can improve people’s lives and the FDA decision confirms what we believe is an important step in making a more meaningful connection between the healthcare provider and their type 1 diabetes patients; Type 1 diabetes, managed with greater attention, leads to improved patient quality of life and reduced payer health-related costs. Advisor Pro enables patients using CGM and an insulin pump to analyze data and recommend to their provider when a change in diabetes-care treatment is timely and needed.”

The cloud-based DreaMed Advisor Pro is a diabetes device meant for quick treatment decision support by analyzing data from continuous glucose monitors, insulin pumps, and self-monitoring. This software has integrated a number of components into its recommendations, such as basal rate, carbohydrate ratio and correction factor. Even the dosage recommendations are directed towards the monitoring clinician, who can forward the same to a patient’s diabetes management device with just a click.  

Eran Atlas further added, “The fact that it was cleared by the FDA on a special de novo application [represents] the first time that you have an algorithm that can recommend insulin changes or dosing based on CGM data; That was basically the main reason why the FDA wanted that to be a de novo application rather than a routine 510(k).” 

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Indian Healthcare Startup SigTuple Raised $19 Million AI Based Products Development

India, Bengaluru based SigTuple, a startup focusing on Artificial Intelligence for Healthcare has raised $19 million in their series B funding. The investment was led by IDG Ventures, pi Ventures Partners along with Accel, Axilor Ventures, VH Capital, Endiya Partners and Flipkart’s executive chairman Binny Bansal. The startup has also bagged venture debt from Trifecta Capital in this round. In an earlier investment round, the company raised $6.5 million from various investors.

“We are planning to invest the new fund in setting up a manufacturing facility to provide more devices in the market. We are looking for U.S., FDA and CE certification; once we get the approval we will require more clinical trials for different market deployments. We will be investing money in the same. We are also looking forward to new sales and support teams.” stated Kumar Pandey, Chief Executive at SigTuple

SigTuple is aimed at a low-cost system for testing urine, semen and blood samples with the assistance of AI to identify microscopic images. Using the company’s own application, the new system can now distinguish these samples to differentiate between normal and abnormal cells. The startup is using AI to advance hardware and software devices that would digitize pathology results. With the new funding, the company will invest in further development of research and advancements of their products. They plan to enhance their assembly, distribution and conduct more clinical trials.

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Babylon’s AI Passes Mock Tests

Startup company Babylon Health, which is working on health-related triage chatbots, has earned fame by having a high-profile partnership with the UK’s National Health Service with an overall investment worth more than $200 million. The company is confident enough to state that its AI can go through England’s GP exam successfully and proceed with top physicians in a well-established diagnostic environment.

Dr. Ali Parsa, the founder of Babylon Health stated, “The World Health Organization estimates that there is a shortage of over 5 million doctors globally, leaving more than half the world's population without access to even the most basic healthcare services; Even in the richest nations, primary care is becoming increasingly unaffordable and inconvenient, often with waiting times that make it not readily accessible. Babylon's latest artificial intelligence capabilities show that it is possible for anyone, irrespective of their geography, wealth, or circumstances, to have free access to health advice that is on par with top-rated practicing clinicians.”

Babylon Health’s AI has already passed the MRCGP (Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners) exam and a real practice test with a good score.

Babylon’s system initiates with a conversation and continues into an AI-assisted telemedicine visit. Apart from physician’s conversation with the patient, the system generates visit notes for the physicians. Even the patient’s facial expressions were analyzed and reported to the doctor. Babylon is working on the Alexa app, which would be released by the end of August.

Dr. Ali Parsa further added, "Our mission is to put accessible and affordable health services into the hands of every person on Earth. These landmark results take humanity a significant step closer to achieving a world where no one is denied safe and accurate health advice."

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Verge Genomics Raised $32 Million for Clinical Trial Work of AI Based Neuroscience Drugs

San Francisco based Verge Genomics, the Neuroscience based drug discovery company launched in 2015, has raised $32 million in early venture capital financing to bring its AI-generated compounds against Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) to clinics within the next three years.

This company has worked in developing its exclusive genomic datasets derived from brain tissue samples of patients who died due to neurodegenerative diseases. Out of 22 novel targets against ALS, a dozen compounds were selected that have shown promising initial data.

Alice Zhang, the co-founder and CEO of Verge Genomics said, “It’s hard to do drug development on your own; But I think the nice thing about this most recent round of $32 million is that it allows us to focus on our internal development—and not need to necessarily rely on pharmaceutical companies to generate revenue—and to develop our own most promising candidates; it also gives us space to pursue partnerships when they can help give us multiple shots on goal, or to continue to validate the platform.”

Alice Zhang further reported, “Our belief is that the most promising applications of AI will come from owning multiple parts of the value chain, and integrating cross-disciplinary teams that break down the silos between biology and computation; Generating your own proprietary data, and focusing on developing your own drug products, is the best way of incentivizing the company to develop the right methods and the right algorithms. I do think there's a scientific and technological renaissance happening in this field, and this is a better moment than any to make real breakthroughs.”

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Microsoft, Walmart Merge in AI, Cloud Deal to Battle Amazon

A five-year engineering pact between Walmart and Microsoft was signed on Tuesday to clash with Amazon in the AI, cloud computing and retail sectors.

Both companies have marched into healthcare and have been rivals of the online giant Amazon at individual levels.

Company executives at Microsoft say that its optimized Azure services for a health cloud platform facilitate customers to focus on clinical and operational competence. The company is also offering AI capabilities and Microsoft Genomics, which the  St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital utilizes.

Likewise, Walmart already operates pharmacies and a growing healthcare business, a market that Amazon forayed into late last month after acquiring the online pharmacy Pillpack. 

For the new alliance, Walmart and Microsoft engineers will team up on the evaluation, expansion, and maintenance phase of shifting hundreds of existing applications to cloud-native structures. 

 Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, said Walmart will gain entry into Microsoft’s Azure cloud and Microsoft 365 to speed up transformation.

After having used some of Microsoft’s services, Walmart is now looking up for new possibilities, such as machine learning, artificial intelligence and data platforms that bring new capabilities which company officials remarked will make shopping quicker and easier. It also plans to transport a notable segment of walmart.com and samsclub.com to Azure, including its cloud-powered check-out.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon commented that the affiliation will compel the company’s “ability to innovate further and faster.” 

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Viz.ai Develops AI Software to Detect Stroke

Viz.ai Develops AI Software to Detect Stroke

Artificial intelligence based company Viz.ai, currently developing software for the detection of urgent stroke cases, has recently raised $21 million in venture capital to develop its portfolio.

The San Francisco and Tel Aviv Company received FDA clearance in February for its cloud computing platform named Viz LVO, which could analyze the brain scans for occlusions and send a notification to neurovascular specialists immediately.

Viz.ai also grabbed a second FDA clearance in April for CT perfusion analysis for its automated cerebral image processing software named Viz CTP.

Mamoon Hamid, the General Partner of Kleiner Perkins who merged the company’s board of directors said,“We were attracted not only to the technology behind Viz.ai and its impact on patient outcomes but also its adoption model; Many new health-tech solutions struggle to gain traction because they are an outside-in sale to medical teams, requiring changes to procedures and workflows. In contrast, physicians and their teams are driving adoption of the Viz.ai platform because it is not disruptive to emergency room procedures and fits naturally into existing systems.”

Viz.ai submitted its LVO to the FDA for detecting large vessel blockages. An alert notification will be sent to the specialist for an intervention if a blockage is detected.

Robert Ochs, Ph.D., the acting deputy director for radiological health from FDA said, "Strokes can cause serious and irreversible damage to patients; The software device could benefit patients by notifying a specialist earlier thereby decreasing the time to treatment. Faster treatment may lessen the extent or progression of a stroke.”

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AI Code of Conduct to be Laid Down by NHS Later in 2018

In the latter part of this year, a code of conduct for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare will be introduced by the NHS, England, announced Harpreet Sood, associate CCIO at NHS England, at The King’s Fund’s Digital Health and Care Congress 2018 on 11 July.

Sood said NHS England was hoping to publish a “basic terminology of what AI means” and a code of conduct later in 2018 in response to a question by an audience member about concerns regarding AI use in the NHS, adding that the documents will help provide ‘principles’, ‘guidance’ and ‘transparency’ for the use of AI within the NHS.

The prospective benefits of AI use in the NHS have garnered a lot of interest among the medical community in recent months. Consequently, the Prime Minister announced in May 2018 that the NHS and technology companies should use AI as a “new weapon” in research.

However, AI use brings with it the issue of data protection. For instance, an investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) which looked into Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust transporting data to DeepMind to evaluate an acute kidney injury alert app called Streams.

Eric Topol, an expert in cardiology, genetics and digital medicine, is presently leading a report into the need of training NHS staff to use AI and robotics. It signifies that there are no official guidelines from NHS England.

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AI Based Software to Develop Radiation Therapy Plans

It is a very time-consuming task for the doctors to develop radiation therapy plans for patients with tumors. In response to this issue, an engineering research graduate named Aaron Babier from the University of Toronto's Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, including Justin Boutilier, supervisor Professor Timothy Chan and Professor Andrea McNiven of U of T's Faculty of Medicine has developed an automation software that could reduce the time to mere hours.

This software uses artificial intelligence (AI) to mine radiation therapy data. This information is then proceeded for optimization to develop relevant treatment plans.

This AI based therapy achieved better results compared to patients' conventionally planned treatments within 20 minutes. The research team recently published these findings in Medical Physics.

Aaron Babier said, "There have been other AI optimization engines that have been developed. The idea behind ours is that it more closely mimics the current clinical best practice; Right now treatment planners have this big time sink. If we can intelligently burn this time sink, they'll be able to focus on other aspects of treatment. The idea of having automation and streamlining jobs will help make health-care costs more efficient. I think it'll really help to ensure high-quality care."  

Babier believes that with further commercialization, the physicians might someday use this tool in clinics.

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PatientWisdom receives $1M funding for Real-World Data Collection Services

New sponsor OCA Ventures along with existing financiers have granted $1 million in Series A funding to PatientWisdom, a digital health corporation working on real-world data compilation tools. The company’s total funding is now worth $3.45 million.

The company’s software collection encompasses PatientWisdom, which assembles data to enhance patient experience and care services, ProviderWisdom, which applies information to engender healthcare provider-level views to develop engagement and care while preventing exhaustion, and CommunityWisdom, which gives organizations a vivid picture of the wide patient population.

“The missing link in healthcare is understanding what matters to the people involved,” Gregory Makoul, founder and CEO of PatientWisdom, said in a statement. “We are leveraging communication science to improve health and care by focusing on what matters, bringing new meaning to ‘personalized’ medicine.”

Referring to a statement, PatientWisdom aims to employ the new funding to present the set of tools to the market by empowering its sales competence. The company will also improve implementation of the pooled data by developing its platforms and creating new analytic skills.

Till now, PatientWisdom’s products have been distributed to Yale New Haven Health, Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin, and OSF Health, all being strategic allies having invested in the company. PatientWisdom’s website reveals that the company is also teaming up with the Healthcare Transformation Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Signal Center for Health Innovation at the University of Iowa Health Care.

“We have been following PatientWisdom, Inc. closely and see their scalable approach to focusing on what matters as highly overdue, unique, and valuable. We are delighted to help fuel the company’s growth,” Bob Saunders, general partner at OCA Ventures, said in a statement.

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AI Based Software to Develop Radiation Therapy Plans

It is a very time-consuming task for the doctors to develop radiation therapy plans for patients with tumors. In response to this issue, an engineering research graduate named Aaron Babier from the University of Toronto's Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, including Justin Boutilier, supervisor Professor Timothy Chan and Professor Andrea McNiven of U of T's Faculty of Medicine has developed an automation software that could reduce the time to mere hours.

This software uses artificial intelligence (AI) to mine radiation therapy data. This information is then proceeded for optimization to develop relevant treatment plans.

This AI based therapy achieved better results compared to patients' conventionally planned treatments within 20 minutes. The research team recently published these findings in Medical Physics.

Aaron Babier said, "There have been other AI optimization engines that have been developed. The idea behind ours is that it more closely mimics the current clinical best practice; Right now treatment planners have this big time sink. If we can intelligently burn this time sink, they'll be able to focus on other aspects of treatment. The idea of having automation and streamlining jobs will help make health-care costs more efficient. I think it'll really help to ensure high-quality care."  

Babier believes that with further commercialization, the physicians might someday use this tool in clinics.

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from Drugdu  https://goo.gl/QgQoHk

FDA Clears First Autonomous AI Diagnostic System Rolled out by University of Iowa Healthcare

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first autonomous artificial intelligence diagnostic system, IDx-DR and the University of Iowa Healthcare has become the first healthcare organization to implement it.

IDx’s AI system is able to detect diabetic retinopathy through medical imaging.

IDx, an AI diagnostics company, develops algorithms that identify diabetic retinopathy in diabetic individuals 22 years of age or older, who have not been already diagnosed with it.

IDx-DR became the first autonomous AI diagnostic system in April, to be given the green signal by the FDA, which signifies that it utilizes AI to diagnose without the assistance of clinicians to interpret the reports. This serves as a great help to healthcare professionals not involved in eye care to test for diabetic retinopathy, a common cause of blindness, during routine clinic visits.

UI Health Care aims to extend the use of the AI across the health system. Following a few hours of training, non-clinical UIHC staff were capable of using the system to perform diabetic retinopathy testing, UI Health Care reported.

Dale Abel, MD, director of the division of endocrinology and metabolism at UI Health Care commented“Early detection of diabetic retinopathy is an essential component of comprehensive diabetes care. This innovation further strengthens our ability to provide state-of-the-art care for our patients with diabetes.”.

IDx-DR provides an easy alternative to diabetics to complete their recommended annual diabetic retinopathy check-up even though the aim is not to replace a complete eye examination by an ophthalmologist. This is important in particular for as many as 50 percent of diabetics who may have impending vision loss and do not get their eyes checked annually, UI Health Care said.

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