11-15-2019, 08:51 AM
Forus Health uses AI to help eradicate preventable blindness
<div><h2><strong>Big problems, shared solutions</strong></h2>
<p>Tackling global challenges has been the focus of many health data consortiums that Microsoft is enabling. The <a href="https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/msind/2018/03/14/mine-ai-network-for-eyecare/">Microsoft Intelligent Network for Eyecare (MINE)</a> – the initiative that Chandrasekhar read about – is now part of the Microsoft AI Network for Healthcare, which also includes consortiums focused on <a href="https://news.microsoft.com/en-in/features/microsoft-ai-network-healthcare-apollo-hospitals-cardiac-disease-prediction/">cardiology</a> and <a href="https://news.microsoft.com/en-in/features/srl-diagnostics-microsoft-consortium-ai-tool-diagnose-cervical-cancer/">pathology</a>.</p>
<p>For all three, Microsoft’s aim is to play a supporting role to help doctors and researchers find ways to improve health care using AI and machine learning.</p>
<p>“The health care providers are the experts,” said Prashant Gupta, Program Director in Azure Global Engineering. “We are the enabler. We are empowering these health care consortiums to build new things that will help with the last mile.”</p>
<p>In the Forus Health project, that “last mile” started by ensuring image quality. When members of the consortium began doing research on what was needed in the eyecare space, Forus Health was already taking the 3nethra classic to villages to scan hundreds of villagers in a day. But because the images were being captured by minimally trained technicians in areas open to sunlight, close to 20% of the images were not high quality enough to be used for diagnostic purposes.</p>
<p>“If you have bad images, the whole process is crude and wasteful,” Gupta said. “So we realized that before we start to understand disease markers, we have to solve the image quality problem.”</p>
<p>Now, an image quality algorithm immediately alerts the technician when an image needs to be retaken.</p>
<p>The same thought process applies to the cardiology and pathology consortiums. The goal is to see what problems exist, then find ways to use technology to help solve them.</p>
<p>“Once you have that larger shared goal, when you have partners coming together, it’s not just about your own efficiency and goals; it’s more about social impact,” Gupta said.</p>
<p>And the highest level of social impact comes through collaboration, both within the consortiums themselves and when working with organizations such as Forus Health who take that technology out into the world.</p>
<p>Chandrasekhar said he is eager to see what comes next.</p>
<p>“Even though it’s early, the impact in the next five to 10 years can be phenomenal,” he said. “I appreciated that we were seen as an equal partner by Microsoft, not just a small company. It gave us a lot of satisfaction that we are respected for what we are doing.”</p>
<p><em>Top image: </em><i><em>Forus Health’s 3nethra classic is an eye-scanning device that can be attached to the back of a moped and transported to remote locations. Photo by Microsoft. </em> </i></p>
<p><em>Leah Culler edits Microsoft’s AI for Business and Technology blog.</em></p>
</div>
https://www.sickgaming.net/blog/2019/11/...blindness/
<div><h2><strong>Big problems, shared solutions</strong></h2>
<p>Tackling global challenges has been the focus of many health data consortiums that Microsoft is enabling. The <a href="https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/msind/2018/03/14/mine-ai-network-for-eyecare/">Microsoft Intelligent Network for Eyecare (MINE)</a> – the initiative that Chandrasekhar read about – is now part of the Microsoft AI Network for Healthcare, which also includes consortiums focused on <a href="https://news.microsoft.com/en-in/features/microsoft-ai-network-healthcare-apollo-hospitals-cardiac-disease-prediction/">cardiology</a> and <a href="https://news.microsoft.com/en-in/features/srl-diagnostics-microsoft-consortium-ai-tool-diagnose-cervical-cancer/">pathology</a>.</p>
<p>For all three, Microsoft’s aim is to play a supporting role to help doctors and researchers find ways to improve health care using AI and machine learning.</p>
<p>“The health care providers are the experts,” said Prashant Gupta, Program Director in Azure Global Engineering. “We are the enabler. We are empowering these health care consortiums to build new things that will help with the last mile.”</p>
<p>In the Forus Health project, that “last mile” started by ensuring image quality. When members of the consortium began doing research on what was needed in the eyecare space, Forus Health was already taking the 3nethra classic to villages to scan hundreds of villagers in a day. But because the images were being captured by minimally trained technicians in areas open to sunlight, close to 20% of the images were not high quality enough to be used for diagnostic purposes.</p>
<p>“If you have bad images, the whole process is crude and wasteful,” Gupta said. “So we realized that before we start to understand disease markers, we have to solve the image quality problem.”</p>
<p>Now, an image quality algorithm immediately alerts the technician when an image needs to be retaken.</p>
<p>The same thought process applies to the cardiology and pathology consortiums. The goal is to see what problems exist, then find ways to use technology to help solve them.</p>
<p>“Once you have that larger shared goal, when you have partners coming together, it’s not just about your own efficiency and goals; it’s more about social impact,” Gupta said.</p>
<p>And the highest level of social impact comes through collaboration, both within the consortiums themselves and when working with organizations such as Forus Health who take that technology out into the world.</p>
<p>Chandrasekhar said he is eager to see what comes next.</p>
<p>“Even though it’s early, the impact in the next five to 10 years can be phenomenal,” he said. “I appreciated that we were seen as an equal partner by Microsoft, not just a small company. It gave us a lot of satisfaction that we are respected for what we are doing.”</p>
<p><em>Top image: </em><i><em>Forus Health’s 3nethra classic is an eye-scanning device that can be attached to the back of a moped and transported to remote locations. Photo by Microsoft. </em> </i></p>
<p><em>Leah Culler edits Microsoft’s AI for Business and Technology blog.</em></p>
</div>
https://www.sickgaming.net/blog/2019/11/...blindness/