Medical Imaging Technique in the Fight Against Covid-19
Published on : Saturday 25-04-2020
Medical imaging is the technique and process of creating visual representations of the interior of a body for clinical analysis and medical intervention. For radiologists, innovations in medical technology may not look the same by the year. Today, the Covid-19 outbreak has put severe stress on the global business, particularly on healthcare providers around the world, leaving them struggling to meet the need to diagnose and treat a surge of patients. In this context, radiology has faced unique complications, as it must balance the diagnostic capabilities of imaging technology with the need to safeguard staff from infection and disinfect equipment after use.
However, to make medical imaging more available to Covid-19 patients, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is relaxing its rules on the modification of radiology equipment. According to reports, modifications will not need the agency's imprimatur before being used on patients during the crisis.
In its announcement, the FDA noted that it's become aware of imaging devices that have been modified into mobile or portable systems. Through this, patients who might need imaging can undergo procedures without entering a large healthcare facility. The agency, to accelerate the availability of these modifications during the public health emergency caused by the Covid-19 outbreak, said it did not intend to object to modifications of FDA-cleared or approved systems, even if it usually might require a 510(k) or premarket approval (PMA) application under normal circumstances.
AI-Based Medical Image Analyses for Covid-19
In the case of death due to novel coronavirus, the ultimate cause was pneumonia, a condition in which inflammation and fluid buildup make it difficult to breathe. However, this requires long hospital stays in the intensive care unit and assistance breathing with ventilators.
Thus, to quickly perceive pneumonia and better distinguish between Covid-19 patients likely to need more supportive care in the hospital and those who could be followed closely at home, UC San Diego Health radiologists and other physicians are now using artificial intelligence to augment lung-imaging analysis in a clinical research study enabled by Amazon Web Services (AWS). With this analysis, UC San Diego Health physicians have found unique insights into more than 2,000 images. The team hopes to expand their AI-powered study for detecting pneumonia to the University of California’s four other academic medical centers.
On the other hand, many other companies around the world over the last week announced a flurry of AI-based systems to detect Covid-19 on chest CT or X-ray scans. These deep learning tools are already being used in hospitals to screen mild cases, triage new infections, and monitor advancing disease. According to industry experts, AI-enabled analysis of chest scans can ease the growing burden on radiologists, who must review and prioritize a rising number of patient chest scans each day.
Therefore, as the Covid-19 pandemic is disrupting large parts of the world in a short period of time, doctors, physicians and medical scientists are putting their efforts day and night to find an effective cure to diagnose the virus effect. In addition, the medical imaging technique is effective for detecting the Covid-19 outbreak, and we believe, it will help radiologists in finding a better cure.