Researchers from Lovely Professional University have developed an easy-to-use cloud-based web interface to detect COVID-19 quickly from radiology reports such as CT scans or X-Rays. The system enables doctors and medical staff to get quick results on the COVID-19 status of a patient.
Powered by AI technologies, CT Scans and X-Rays are being deployed as part of global efforts to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. The unavailability of resources in our healthcare system is a big hindrance in COVID-19 detection and treatment, especially in the remote areas; so researchers wanted to build a cloud-based system which could be accessed at minimal costs even in remote locations, according to Prabin Kumar Das, a B.Tech student.
As per the study published in the journal Radiology, the chest X-ray scan features can help in the early detection and diagnosis of the virus. The interface developed by researchers at LPU is cloud-based and does not need any high-tech device or technicians to operate as it can be accessed by an authorised healthcare professional anywhere in the world via a basic mobile device with internet connectivity and a web browser.
The researchers noted that the user will have to upload a patient’s scan on the website and it will return the diagnosis result within a few seconds. The team is in touch with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for further evaluation and is also in talks with industry partners to collaborate by providing the most promising medically-certified AI models which can be used for diagnosis of COVID19.
It took the team, including B.Tech student Biswajyoti Roy, and professors Rajesh Singh and Anita Gehlot, around one month to develop the framework. The AI model that the team built for testing the framework was trained and tested over more than 13,000 chest radiography images, according to the researchers.
