Medical technology Archives

World-first AI foundation model for eye care to supercharge global efforts to prevent blindness

Researchers at Moorfields Eye Hospital and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that has the potential to not only identify sight-threatening eye diseases but also predict general health, including heart attacks, stroke, and Parkinson’s disease.

RETFound, one of the first AI foundation models in health care, and the first in ophthalmology, was developed using millions of eye scans from the NHS. The research team are making the system open-source: freely available to use by any institution worldwide, to act as a cornerstone for global efforts to detect and treat blindness using AI. This work has been published in Nature.

Progress in AI continues to accelerate at a dizzying pace, with excitement being generated by the development of “foundation” models such as ChatGPT. A foundation model describes a very large, complex AI system, trained on huge amounts of unlabeled data, which can be fine-tuned for a diverse range of subsequent tasks.

RETFound consistently outperforms existing state-of-the-art AI systems across a range of complex clinical tasks, and even more importantly, it addresses a significant shortcoming of many current AI systems by working well in diverse populations, and in patients with rare disease.

Senior author Professor Pearse Keane (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital) said, “This is another big step towards using AI to reinvent the eye examination for the 21st century, both in the U.K. and globally. We show several exemplar conditions where RETFound can be used, but it has the potential to be developed further for hundreds of other sight-threatening eye diseases that we haven’t yet explored.”

“If the U.K. can combine high quality clinical data from the NHS, with top computer science expertise from its universities, it has the true potential to be a world leader in AI-enabled health care. We believe that our work provides a template for how this can be done.”

AI foundation models have been called “a transformative technology” by the U.K. government in a report published earlier this year, and have come under the spotlight with the launch in November 2022 of ChatGPT, a foundation model trained using vast quantities of text data to develop a versatile language tool.

Source: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-09-world-first-ai-foundation-eye-supercharge.html

Biometric implant monitors transplant patients for organ rejection

The sensor can continuously monitor an organ’s temperature.

Researchers at Northwestern University developed a bioelectric implant that can detect temperature fluctuations that typically happen right before a body rejects an organ transplant. The sensor is smaller than a fingernail, and a mere 220 micrometers thick.

This new sensor technology is thin enough to sit directly on a kidney’s fibrous layer — called the renal capsule — which surrounds and protects the organ. The device works by continuously monitoring changes to blood flow and temperature. The built-in thermometer can sense increases as minuscule as 0.004 degrees Celsius. Once an irregularity is detected, the sensor, which contains a micro coin cell battery for power, uses Bluetooth to alert a patient or physician via a smartphone or tablet. Any increase typically signals inflammation which is a potential sign of transplant rejection.

After any surgery that involves an organ transplant, the risk of rejection is high. The sensor was developed specifically for kidney transplants but it could also work for other organs, including the liver and lungs. Kidney transplants in the US are on the rise and are usually recommended for people who will not be able to live without dialysis. The American Kidney Fund cites that an acute rejection of a kidney transplant one month after surgery happens in about five to twenty percent of patients that go under.

That’s why it is critical to detect transplant rejection, which occurs when your body’s immune system treats the new organ like a foreign object and attacks it. If a healthcare provider detects signs of rejection early enough, medical intervention can preserve the new organ in the new host. Northwestern researchers said that the device detected warning signs of organ rejection three weeks earlier than current monitoring methods. The current “gold standard” for detecting rejection is a biopsy, where a tissue sample is extracted from the transplanted organ and then analyzed in a lab. However, biopsies are invasive and can cause bleeding and increase the risk for infection.

Source: https://www.engadget.com/biometric-implant-monitors-transplant-patients-for-organ-rejection-180045215.html

Liquid biopsy gaining traction over conventional methods: Experts

Liquid biopsy, a blood-based test for diagnosing cancer, is gaining popularity over traditional tissue-based biopsies, say experts. The test analyses circulating tumour cells or cell-free DNA to diagnose or analyse tumours and cancer cells, and can also be used to monitor how well patients are responding to treatment. Several studies have identified liquid biopsies as the “future of early cancer detection”.

Liquid biopsy is a test that enables the diagnosis or analysis of tumours and cancer cells using only a blood or fluid sample rather than a solid tissue biopsy. (Reuters/ Representational image)

Liquid biopsy, a blood-based test for diagnosing cancer, is slowly gaining traction over traditional, more invasive tissue-based biopsies among medical professionals, oncologists and industry experts have said.

Speaking at a talk moderated by author and columnist Swapan Seth on Thursday, Dr Nitesh Rohatgi, senior director (medical oncology) at Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram, said that while India has become better at cancer diagnosis, there is still a long way to go and advances in the technology are being made every day.

“There are a lot of factors that make one vulnerable to cancers. While genetic predisposition plays a major role, factors such as consumption of alcohol, smoking, lack of exercising and poor diet also contribute to our vulnerability…Till a decade back, we would not have imagined that we could diagnose cancers through blood biopsies but today it is a reality and technology around cancer diagnosis and care is advancing rapidly,” said Dr Rohtagi.

Liquid biopsy is a test that enables the diagnosis or analysis of tumours and cancer cells using only a blood or fluid sample rather than a solid tissue biopsy. The test analyses DNA from whole circulating tumour cells (CTC) or cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from malignant tumour. This does not just help cancer diagnosis, but also prognosis, while assessing progress of how patients have responded to cancer therapies that they have been undergoing.

“Doctors are increasingly using liquid biopsies to know how well a patient is responding to treatments, by recommending these tests at different stages of the treatment,” Dr Rohatgi said.

Several recent studies have identified liquid biopsies as the “future of early cancer detection.”

A study published in February this year, by the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, highlighted that a liquid biopsy test could enhance the screening and triage pathways and increase the proportion of patients referred for onward investigation who have an abnormality. This increased efficiency in the diagnostic process would reduce the delay to diagnosis, as well as costs, the study said.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/liquid-biopsy-gaining-traction-as-a-blood-based-test-for-cancer-diagnosis-say-experts-at-talk-moderated-by-swapan-seth-101683485640581.html