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AI as First Point-of-Care for Rapid Diabetes Diagnosis in Taiwan

Image credits: www.itri.org.tw

Taiwan has successfully developed Point-of-Care (PoC) to provide rapid diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and diabetic macular oedema (DME). The PoC machine is a winner in the software/services category of the 2022 R&D 100 Awards. Taiwan’s most prominent high-tech applied research institutions claimed that the AI-assisted system is the first in the world and can be integrated into handheld and desktop fundus cameras commonly used in hospitals and clinics to detect DR and DME symptoms.

Using the PoC system, DR and DME can be diagnosed in as little as 5 to 10 seconds. The machine then assesses image quality instantly before diagnosis to avoid AI misinterpretation. Based on fundus images, it marks lesions and assigns severity levels to them. Furthermore, the Point-of-Care AI-DR can detect 14 other common ocular fundus abnormalities such as retinal diseases, blood vessel changes, and optic nerve diseases.

Due to its ease of use, general practitioners can conduct early screening for DR and DME complications. It can also determine whether a patient should see an ophthalmologist. Screening through primary care physicians raises screening rates, lowers treatment costs, and allow patients early detection outcome.

According to the International Diabetes Foundation, 537 million adults aged 20 to 79 worldwide had diabetes in 2021. The Foundation expects the number to rise to 643 million by 2030 and 783 million by 2045. According to the National Eye Institute, more than half of people with diabetes will develop DR, and one in every 15 will develop DME.

Point-of-Care AI-DR improves diabetes health monitoring and management by identifying lesions and severity stages of DR and DME. The PoC also lowers the risks of vision loss or blindness caused by diabetic eye complications. In addition, tracking changes in fundus symptoms over time allows physicians to gain a thorough understanding of a patient’s diabetes development status. The function is critical for diabetes management because the AI PoC can monitor changes in fundus symptoms. This is more reliable than the usual tracking of blood sugar levels which can change right before patient examination.

“Point-of-Care AI-DR is a collaboration result of human and artificial intelligence. The machine works based on ophthalmologists’ expertise and AI analysis. In addition, it uses complementary medical AI models to perform individual diagnostic tasks such as classifying and detecting symptoms to improve overall interpretation efficiency,” said Dr Pang-An Ting, Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) General Director of Information and Communications Research Laboratories.

To develop Point-of-Care AI-DR, ITRI enlisted 50 ophthalmologists to collect and label 150,000 fundus images as training data for robust AI models. As a result, Point-of-Care AI-DR outperforms existing products in terms of sensitivity (>98%) and specificity (>96%) in DR diagnosis. Moreover, the outcome allows non-ophthalmologists to perform rapid point-of-care DR screening in the same way that ophthalmologists do. It can support all existing fundus cameras worldwide and be used to build various solutions, such as edge AI systems, standalone web applications, and private/public cloud-based services.

The detection provided is in multiple areas such as locating lesions (microaneurysms, haemorrhages, soft exudates, and hard exudates), detecting anatomical landmarks of the optic disc and macular area, classifying the severity levels of diabetic retinopathy (from none to severe) and producing binary classifications to assist general practitioners in providing ophthalmologists with data-informed decisions.

Licensing is available for Point-of-Care AI-DR.

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

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CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

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Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

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SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

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HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

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IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

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