Luzon hospitals, centers get help from TB-detecting AI
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Public hospitals and health centers in Luzon are set to receive artificial intelligence (AI) software designed to detect early signs of tuberculosis (TB), a bacterial infection affecting more than 700,000 Filipinos.
Under a partnership between the medical technology company Siemens Healthineers Philippines and Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), the AI software will be used in 28 hospitals and health centers in the National Capital Region, Central Luzon, and Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon (Calabarzon.)
According to PBSP executive director Elvin Ivan Uy, the three regions account for more than 60 percent of TB cases in the country.
Citing data from the World Health Organization (WHO), he said the Philippines is currently the fourth largest contributor of TB cases worldwide, accounting for 6.8 percent of total cases, or about 739,000 patients.
“While we may not be able to cover the entire regions, we expect these tools to help our local health front-liners [screen] more accurately, more effectively,” Uy said on Thursday.
“We’re estimating about 126,000 people screened per month across those 28 devices with AI, across the three regions,” he added.
READ: PH still among Top 5 in tally of TB cases
READ: DOH raises alert on rise in tuberculosis cases: It’s ‘higher than in 2022’
Results in seconds
The AI software, provided by Qure.ai, gives an automated interpretation of a patient’s digital chest X-ray. By producing results in a matter seconds, it can help speed up the diagnosis and allow the TB patient to get early treatment.
Tisha Boatman, executive vice president of Siemens Healthineers, stressed the importance of early diagnosis for TB both for the patient’s immediate treatment and swift containment of the disease.
“When somebody has tuberculosis … they need to take their antiretroviral drugs and (have them) followed up on a very consistent basis for six, seven, nine months,” Boatman said.
“[I]t’s a long process … and if there’s any gap in the follow-up, unfortunately they can easily infect those around them. Up to 15 people a year. It is a highly infectious and transferable disease when not controlled,” she added.
In local hospitals and health centers with limited manpower, it would still take several days to release chest X-ray findings, she said.
‘Screen and treat’
“So what’s absolutely critical with AI is being able to make a diagnosis on the spot, to see what we call in global health ‘screen and treat.’ Very quickly, [if] the person is presumptive for TB, we will confirm that with the clinical sputum test, and the person can be started on their antiretrovirals,” Boatman said.
The initiative is part of Siemens and PBSP’s project called Access TB—or Advancing Client-centered Care and Expanding Sustainable Services for TB.
Supported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the project seeks to accelerate the adoption of AI in medical diagnoses.
