Medical Imaging and Diagnostic Lab, NCAI

The MIDL, NCAI is constituted to become the leading hub of research, innovation, training, and knowledge transfer to medical labs in the area of AI. Lab have 3 major projects, Breast cancer, Brain Tumor and TB. With the advent of medical imaging technology, digital graphical representation of different parts of the body are readily available in different modalities, such as MRI, CT-Scan, and X-ray. That, along with the development in computer hardware technology, has made it possible for computer scientists to apply machine learning / pattern recognition techniques to classify images as either indicating a disease or not. That can be specifically useful for the detection of deadly diseases such as cancer and tuberculosis. Machines have an advantage over human expertise when it comes to identifying small changes in pixel values that are visually rather impossible to see, that may indicate the presence or absence of the disease. This project is an exercise in this direction to automate the disease detection process with achievement of high accuracy to be completed in a reasonably short amount of time, making it virtually online. Prognosis of cancer patients can be improved through its early detection. Visually identifying cancer in its earlier stages is at times difficult, and is subject to visual interpretation by the oncologist. That introduces chances of error, which may have debilitating effect on the health of the patient. Machines can help in accurate earlier diagnosis of the cancer, and may help in proper treatment of the patient with higher chances of survival post-treatment. Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death among women after lung cancer. Every year around 40,000 women in Pakistan die due to it . Early detection may help in saving lives and enhancing the quality of life for the patients . Local hospitals have solutions that take in MRI images and help the oncologists in manually identifying the disease.