Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge is set to be the first hospital in the world to use InnerEye, an AI deep-learning tool from Microsoft Research Cambridge that accelerates the treatment of cancer patients. The technology computes hospital data to accurately identify tumours on patient scans, cutting CT processing times and treatment planning by up to 90%.

The toolkit could potentially reduce the waiting time for cancer treatment that has built up over the pandemic without compromising on the quality of care. Microsoft has also made the InnerEye software opensource and freely available in order to democratise care and ensure that as many people as possible can benefit from the tool.

When performed manually, a clinical oncologist or specialised technician must segment CT images obtained during a screening individually in a process called contouring. The medical professional outlines what are tumours and what are healthy organs on the scan, a process that can take several hours. The InnerEye toolkit processes these images 13 times faster than when done manually, utilising the hospital’s own data to improve accuracy and presenting the data to be carefully checked by the consultant oncologist.

Up to half of people in the UK will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their life. According to Cancer Research, the pandemic has meant an estimated three million people in the UK have missed out on cancer screenings due to hospital restrictions, creating a severe backlog of patients waiting for treatment. The InnerEye toolkit, which is hosted securely on Microsoft’s Azure cloud, enables clinicians to spend more time with more patients whilst ensuring their treatment plans are tailored to them individually.

AI and deep learning are becoming a growing presence in digital care in the UK, with the government recently announcing a £20 million injection of funds into AI research.

Dr Rajesh Jena, an oncologist at Addenbrooke’s and co-lead of InnerEye, said: “The results from InnerEye are a game-changer. To be diagnosed with a tumour of any kind is an incredibly traumatic experience for patients. So as clinicians we want to start radiotherapy promptly to improve survival rates and reduce anxiety. Using machine learning tools can save time for busy clinicians and help get our patients into treatment as quickly as possible.”

“There is no doubt that InnerEye is saving me time,” said Yvonne Rimmer, consultant clinical oncologist at Addenbrooke’s. “It’s speeding up the process so I can concentrate on looking at a patient’s diagnostic images and tailoring treatment to them. But it’s important for patients to know that the AI is helping me in my professional role; it’s not replacing me in the process. I double check everything the AI does and can change it if I need to. The key thing is that most of the time, I don’t need to change anything.”

Javier Alvarez-Valle, principal research manager at Microsoft Research Cambridge, said: “AI models trained with InnerEye are changing the way cancer is treated, speeding up the process to give patients greater peace of mind and empowering clinical oncologists with an AI assistant. The AI works in the background, so clinical oncologists just open up the scans on their computer and they can see what their AI model has highlighted. The clinical oncologist then decides what to do with that information.”

Medical malpractices and administrative errors conducted in private hospitals and clinics in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) can soon be reported via a centralised system, it has been revealed.

Unveiled by the Gulf country’s Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) during GITEX Technology Week 2020, the new e-complaint system is being launched to “to ensure that medical and technical personnel are playing their role in accordance with the policies and regulations of the private health sector,” MoHAP said in a statement.

The new system is part of MoHAP’s “efforts to upgrade the quality of the healthcare system, innovate smart solutions, adhere to the implementation of quality systems, and to actively take part in shaping public policies and strategies,” said the assistant undersecretary of MoHAP’s Public Health Policy and Licenses department, Amin Hussein Al Amiri.

It will reportedly work by logging the complaint and allowing the transfer of a patient’s medical records to MoHAP “while maintaining full confidentiality”.

Those who log a complaint will be able to track its status at all times until “a final outcome is entered by a neutral medical committee” called the Medical Liability Committee. The committee would “investigate the incident and hear both parties, as well as assess the medical procedures followed by the doctor,” MoHAP continued.

ON THE RECORD

Hessa Mubarak, MoHAP’s Director of Health Empowerment and Compliance added: “The new system is an important asset to the existing procedures, as it eases the handling of complaints for all stakeholders to achieve the health compliance of private medical facilities.

“It allows all individuals, whether residents or visitors, to file a complaint on private health facilities together with all the supporting evidence. A report, then, is submitted to the Medical Licensing Committee to take the appropriate action.”

The year 2020 has undoubtedly provided those in healthcare and technology communities with multiple problems to solve. From enabling telemedicine at scale to creating and distributing an entirely new vaccine, the problems caused by the pandemic have required collaboration, investment and adoption at speed previously unseen in healthcare.

As well as solving the acute problems caused by the vaccine, healthcare organisations are now faced with the challenge of addressing a significant backlog. New NHS England figures show the number of patients waiting to start treatment at the end of October 2020 was 4.44 million and of those, 162,888 were waiting more than a full year. While we were dealing with the immediate issue, a lot of healthcare stopped, but the requirement for it certainly did not. A great deal now needs to be done.

Can A.I. help clear the healthcare backlog?

In September 2020, NHSX, the organisation driving the digital transformation of health and social care, announced that 42 tech companies will receive a share of over £50M ($66M) in phase one of its £140M ($186M) AI in Health and Care Award.

The award, part of the NHS AI Lab programme, is the latest actualisation of the NHS Long Term Plan and Simon Stevens’ 2019 commitment of £250M ($330M) investment to enable collaboration and co-creation between government, health and care providers, academics and technology companies so they can address the existing barriers to development and deployment of AI systems in health and care. In doing so, the hope is to catalyse the adoption of AI in healthcare whilst creating an environment to develop the appropriate guidance and regulations to protect patients.

Many trying to innovate in healthcare still face jibes about the use of fax machines in hospitals, but this level of investment from a central NHS organisation into AI companies shows that there is a contradicting, simultaneous, high-tech strategy at play. And it looks to be for the long term. With a second competition closing last week, this commitment for continuation in the same vein and the blossoming relationship between innovative technology startups and the NHS shows early promise.

Sight Diagnostics, the company delivering lab-grade Complete Blood Count (CBC) results in minutes, announced a distribution partnership with Phoenix Capital to extend Sight’s footprint in the Middle East. Through the partnership, Sight will provide OLO analyzers – the company’s decentralized, lab-quality diagnostic technology – to medical centers across the Middle East to help providers make quick and informed treatment decisions.

Most outpatient clinics in the United Arab Emirates are currently operating mini-labs with legacy diagnostic technologies like flow cytometry, which require large, expensive machines that aren’t suited for point-of-care (POC) settings. As such, there is an increasing demand for modern POC diagnostics in the Middle East and Africa, with the market projected to reach $2.85 billion by 2024.

Sight OLO enables fast, accurate, convenient blood diagnostics by delivering CBC results in minutes right at the point-of-care*. About the size of a toaster oven, OLO is small, compact, and light-weight, allowing for quick, simple set-up wherever it’s needed. Unlike traditional CBC analyzers, Sight OLO does not require reagents or manual quality control checks, making it easy for smaller clinics or independent practices to access and operate.

Abdullah Saeed Al Naboodah, Chairman of Phoenix Capital remarks, “We chose Sight OLO because it simply meets the needs of the clinics we distribute to. With the influx of patients due to COVID-19, having access to fast, accurate fingerprick diagnostics is essential to quickly and correctly triage and treat our clinic’s patients.”

Phoenix Capital will first distribute Sight OLO to the nine medical centers it owns across the United Arab Emirates. Over the next year, Sight will work with Phoenix Capital to start expanding OLO’s install base in the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council region.

“We’re determined to democratize access to rapid, accurate, and convenient diagnostics in countries around the world,” says Yossi Pollak, CEO and Cofounder of Sight Diagnostics. “We’re looking forward to expanding into this new market through our partnership with Phoenix Capital to help meet the needs of emergency rooms, clinics, hospitals, and other care facilities that have been impacted by COVID-19.”

This distribution partnership follows a recent investment partnership between Phoenix Capital and OurCrowd, one of Sight’s longtime investors that recently participated in the diagnostic company’s $71 million Series D funding round. Notably, the news also follows a historic normalization agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, signaling the countries’ progress in sharing resources and technology to improve healthcare together.

*Sight OLO received regulatory approval for use in the UAE and is CE Marked according to the IVD European directive at point of care settings. In the United States, Sight OLO is 510(k) cleared for use in moderate complexity laboratories; it has not yet been cleared for point-of-care use.

About Sight Diagnostics
Founded in 2011, Sight Diagnostics aims to transform health systems and patient outcomes through accurate and pain-free blood diagnostic testing. Sight’s technology, developed over almost a decade of research, represents breakthrough innovations in diagnostic methodology. Sight’s latest blood analyzer, Sight OLO, performs a Complete Blood Count, the most commonly ordered blood test, in minutes. It’s compact: designed to be used in a variety of settings. Sight OLO creates a digital version of a blood sample by capturing more than 1,000 highly detailed images from just two drops of blood obtained from a finger prick or venous sample. These images are then interpreted by proprietary and fully automated AI algorithms. Sight’s first product, ParasightTM, has been used to detect malaria in almost 1 million tests across 24 countries. The company has rapidly growing offices in the UK, the US and Israel.

About Phoenix Capital
Phoenix Capital was established by Mr Abdullah Al Naboodah to help catalyze the growth of expansion-seeking entrepreneurs and businesses from around the globe and to help create a more developed and connected world. By leveraging experiences in a diverse array of industries, Phoenix Capital’s portfolio of sophisticated and wide-ranging clients and partners serve as a springboard for entities with ambition to penetrate the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council).

Times Network, India’s premium broadcast network, has launched a special mental health initiative, #ActNow, to spread awareness about the rising mental health crisis in India and drive the importance of urgently addressing the issues related to the crisis.

As part of the campaign, a film, Act Now, has been unveiled which can be accessed at https://youtu.be/_-duTzdnXQo. The initiative draws relevance from Times Network’s nationwide research done by Nielsen India on ‘How Urban India Perceives Mental Health’ – presents an in-depth analysis of the mental health landscape in the country.

Dismantling the taboo around mental health ailments, #ActNow takes an outside-in view of the problem and targets the ‘people around’ to act, rather than the one living with mental health issues. The initiative launched on a special edition of Mirror NOW’s Urban Debate.

Mirroring how societal structures treat a person living with a mental ailment with ignorance, pity, annoyance and utter disbelief, the film unravels the state of mind of someone who is besieged by misinterpreted advice of his near and dear ones as he fights a lone battle.

Times Network’s study done by Nielsen indicates that while awareness levels related to mental health ailments have gone up recently, there is a pressing need to disseminate the factual information to tackle the strong undercurrents of stigma and lack access to quality mental healthcare.

Daman, a digital healthcare company based in Denmark, has partnered with pharmaceutical firms Gilead Sciences and Galapagos to reach more people living with rheumatoid arthritis.

The chronic condition affects around 17.6 million people worldwide, and the WHO estimate that at least 50 per cent of people who develop it are unable to hold down a full-time job within 10 years.

Daman’s new agreement will include 15 global markets, with which they hope to reach more patients living with the illness. The partnership agreement runs until September 2021, with the possibility of extension.

Currently around 13,000 people use Daman’s RheumaBuddy app, which lets people rate their symptoms on a daily basis. The app summarises this info and then provides an overview to the patient and their doctor.

RheumaBuddy also encourages patients to engage with their treatment and speak to other people with the condition.

Over the next 6 months Daman will be adding new features that have been co-created with patients. These include My Plan & Goal, which will guide healthy habits towards improving quality of life; and a function to help patients collaborate more closely with rheumatologists.

Andreas Dam, CEO at Daman, said: “There is a huge unmet need among RA patients to give more holistic care offerings. The partnership enables us to take important steps in the direction – to the benefit of patients and society.”

As well as RheumaBuddy, Daman are the creators of HealthBuddy, a tool that collects patient data via a symptom tracker or diary, and uses machine learning to develop insights and personalised solutions.

https://www.healthcareglobal.com/digital-healthcare/medtech-startup-partners-gilead-and-galapagos

UK-based online physiotherapy clinic PhysioFastOnline has partnered with Healthily, a self-care app that helps people manage their healthcare, with the aim of providing virtual physiotherapy to more people.

Users of PhysioFastOnline with muscoloskeletal (MSK) issues like sprains, strains and bad backs answer a range of questions to find out what type of advice and treatment they need. They can then be offered virtual consultations with a qualified physiotherapist, which will generally be available on the same day.

Referrals to a specialist are also available if needed, including to personalised rehab programmes.

Online physiotherapists are accredited with both the Health and Care Professions Council and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists. All have a minimum of five years’ experience of providing muscoloskeletal physiotherapy, whether in the National Health Service (NHS), private practice or sports therapy settings.

A recent survey commissioned by Healthily of 2,200 adults and 100 doctors from across the UK, found that over two-thirds (67 per cent) of doctors want their patients to take greater responsibility for their own health and relieve pressure on the NHS.

Additionally 1 in 4 adults in the UK are affected by a muscoloskeletal disorder, which is around 9.6 million people, accounting for 30 per cent of doctor visits.

Healthily provides information on hundreds of health conditions, including sexual health, colds and flu, and nutritional information, via a symptom tracker among other tools. The platform is registered as a Class 1 medical device, and is available on Android and iOS.

Matt West, Chief Commercial Officer at Healthily said: “At Healthily, we’re on a mission to change the world by bringing informed, effective self-care to 1 billion people. This means working closely with likeminded companies such as PhysioFastOnline to provide a wide range of solutions.”