The importance of diagnostic imaging during the public health emergency
Bracco explains how the Centro Diagnostico Italiano has sped up processes and enhanced the use of artificial intelligence and big data during the pandemic
Dubai: As Official Gold Sponsor of the Italy Pavilion, the Bracco Group has selected a global stage as Expo 2020 Dubai to present the latest applications of artificial intelligence in the medical and scientific fields.
Bracco Imaging and the Centro Diagnostico Italiano tell the story of their journey to reach conclusions in a forum titled”“Intelligent Imaging: Beyond the Future and Back to Mind”.
With a panoply of internationally renowned speakers and a project entitled “AI-for-COVID” such a wide-ranging project, AI-for-COVID is not only a meeting point for technology and medicine, it also hopes to establish a personalised therapeutic approach for all patients with COVID-19.
The project is the result of the work carried out during the health emergency by Covid-19 during which the Italian Diagnostic Center has enhanced and accelerated the processes of the use of artificial intelligence systems and big-data in diagnostic imaging.
“Radiological imaging is playing a crucial role in diagnosing COVID-19 patients and determining treatment options” as Sergio Papa, Director of Diagnostic Imaging at CDI, explains: “Effectively, what we have done is to recruit Radiomics (which, along with Genomics, represents the new frontier of personalized medicine) into the battle against this terrible pandemic by putting valuable medical data at the disposition of all doctors and hospitals. Diagnostic imaging generates a vast volume of data that, thanks to the power of artificial intelligence, can be correlated to the clinical development and course of the disease. Our AI-for-COVID project has given a fresh impulse to our research into the pathology caused by COVID, with particular regard to the damage it causes the lungs, and is helping us to implement targeted measures for patients whose pre-existing conditions render them more susceptible to the deleterious effects of the disease.
The forum, moderated by Federico Ferrazza,Editor-in-Chief of Wired Italia, will feature speakers:
Dr. Charles Kahn, Professor and Vice Chair of Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania. His research interests include artificial intelligence, decision support, knowledge representation, and outcomes research. He currently serves as editor of Radiology: Artificial Intelligence.
Dr. Lorenzo Preda, Full Professor of Radiology at the University of Pavia and Head of the Radiology Division at the IRCCS Fondazione Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia. Author of more than 170 papers on indexed journals. Member of Italian Society of Medical Radiology (SIRM) and European Society of Radiology (ESR).
Dr. Isabella Castiglioni, Full Professor in medical physics and machine learning at the University of Milan-Bicocca and co-founder and Honorary President of the startup DeepTrace Technology, active in AI-based medical devices. In 2019 she was recognized as one of the 100 women against stereotypes for science, in 2021 she won the International Award Tecnovisionarie – category AI and Health, and the International Award Inspiring Fifty. She collaborates with the Italian government for the implementation of the National AI Strategy policy.
Dr. Marco Alì, Research Operation Manager Consultant at CDI Centro Diagnostico Italiano and Scientific Advisor for Bracco Imaging;
Dr. Giovanni Valbusa, Imaging software and AI Bracco R&D Manager.
For Dr. Charles Kahn, Professor and Vice Chair of Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania, “Artificial intelligence can help add value to diagnostic radiology throughout the consultation process. AI can help select the most appropriate exam, optimize the way the exam is performed, and improve image quality. Radiologists can apply AI systems to detect abnormalities, formulate a diagnosis, and provide recommendations for follow up”.
Dr. Lorenzo Preda Full Professor of Radiology at the University of Pavia and Head of the Radiology Division at the IRCCS Fondazione Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia. In his talk provided an overview of the impact of the artificial intelligence revolution on diagnostic imaging from a clinical and practical perspective, exploring not only the “silver lining” but also its shadows. The event will also be an opportunity to announce a focus on the lessons learned from COVID-19 and its push for a change in our habits.
Dr. Isabella Castiglioni, Full Professor in medical physics and machine learning at the University of Milan-Bicocca and co-founder and Honorary President of the startup DeepTrace Technology, will present an advancement on the state of the art in the last decade regarding artificial intelligence. “Today, artificial intelligence algorithms,” he explains, “are able to extract large numbers of quantitative features from medical images, often invisible to the naked eye, and associate them with clinical data to inform physicians about diagnosis, prognosis and response to treatments. However, these tools are mostly developed as research tools, and the transition to become medical devices, required to bring them to the patient, is for all intents and purposes a complex challenge. From design to development, and manufacturing, artificial intelligence medical software must undertake a regulatory compliance path similar to that of a drug today.” “The Italian Diagnostic Center, in collaboration with the startup DeepTrace Technologies, a spin off of the University School of Pavia – specifies Professor Castiglioni – has accomplished this important step and can now tell about its experience related to the “memory clinic”, a path of personalized predictive medicine of neurodegenerative diseases that assists the neurologist with the informed decision of a CE marked artificial intelligence medical device.”
Dr. Marco Alì, Research Operation Manager at CDI adds “Italy was the first western country hit by COVID-19. Since then radiology imaging has played an increasingly key-role in the diagnosis of COVID-19 patients and in determining therapeutic options, patient care management and new research directions. For this reason, CDI Centro Diagnostico Italiano, an important health institute placed in Milan and accredited by Joint Commission International, promoted AIforCOVID project: a multi-centre, observational, retrospective, no-profit study aiming to develop AI-based algorithm for the prediction of COVID-19 patients clinical outcomes. Several important public and private clinical and research institutions joined the project, and after the conclusion of the study both raw data and results were made public and reported in the literature”.
The focus for Dr. Giovanni Valbusa, Imaging software and AI Bracco R&D Manager, is about AI, which pervades today our daily life. Countless examples, from face recognition, automatic trading, smartphones applications, security applications, video games and up to self-driving cars, demonstrate that AI is useful and can create business. Many applications deal with images and so, in a time when radiologists struggle to meet the rising demand for examinations, AI would be expected to play a major role in biomedical imaging. AI, instead, is still fighting to find its place in the radiology departments. AI used for healthcare is different from AI used for other less-critical applications from the legal, ethical, technical and logistic perspective. We try to discuss these points from an R&D point of view”.
