Microsoft uses AI in India to detect cervical cancer faster
In India, most women worldwide die of cervical cancer. Every year 260,000 women do not survive the disease, 67,000 of whom live in India. Effective screening and early detection can help to make a quick diagnosis and start treatment. AI is now being used by Microsoft to make the diagnosis faster, reports website TechCrunch.
Faster detection of deviations
SRL Diagnostics is the largest chain in India that makes diagnoses. This chain works together with Microsoft to detect defects in smears faster through AI. SRL receives more than 100,000 smears every year, of which around 2% show deviations. The company was looking for ways to ensure that this 2% abnormal sample can be found faster. The smears with abnormalities were studied manually so that these observations could be used as training data.
AI algorithm
The idea was to create an AI algorithm that can identify areas. Thousands of smear images were subsequently studied in several laboratories. This week, SRL and Microsoft revealed that the collaboration is leading to results and AI is being deployed to use the cervical cancer image detection API. The slide images are screened to detect this cancer at an early stage. SRL and Microsoft hope that in the long term this can also be used to detect other forms of cancer.