Problem/Objective

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in women today. According to WHO, one in every 12 women have the risk of a breast abnormality. Indian women have only about 50% chance of survival. Early diagnosis is very critical to decrease mortality rates. The current gold standard for breast cancer screening, mammography, requires high capital cost for equipment and experienced radiographers. It is recommended once every 2 years and only to women above 45 years because it cannot identify tumours effectively for younger women, and uses of X-rays for scanning, which can make women more susceptible to cancer if screened multiple times. In addition, it is also very painful for the subject as about 20 pounds weight is applied on the breasts while screening. Other common method of clinical exam can detect tumours only after they are large enough to be palpable.

Solution/Approach

NIRAMAI Health Analytix is a Bangalore-based deep-tech startup, which stands for "Non-Invasive Risk Assessment with Machine Intelligence". They have developed a new cancer screening software that uses machine intelligence over thermography images to detect breast cancer at a much earlier stage than traditional methods or self-examination. The core of the solution is Thermalytix, a computer-aided diagnostic engine that is powered by Artificial Intelligence. SMILE (Software with Machine Intelligence for Life Enhancement) is a web interface for the NIRAMAI certified technician to upload demography information about the patient along with her thermal images. Big data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning are leveraged to analyse the patient’s breast health condition, automatically generating a report listing certain unique parameters and recommending a breast health score. This method of screening can detect tumours five times smaller than what clinical exam can detect. It is a low cost, accurate, automated, portable cancer screening tool that can be operated by a simple clinician. Unlike mammography, this imaging method is radiation free, non-touch, not painful and works for women of all ages.

Impact/Implementation

NIRAMAI provide complete hardware-software solution for breast cancer screening in three modes. (a) Sturdy, compact screening device with cloud processing for specialty hospitals (b) Low-cost, handheld device with real-time cloud-based diagnostics for independent medical practitioners (c) A portable solution for large-scale screenings. The innovative methods used in the solution have led to multiple US patents. The cancer screening tool, SMILE, has been tested on more than 4000 women in 12 hospitals/diagnostic centers as well as screening camps. 3 clinical trials, comparing Thermalytix with current standards of care, have been published in peer reviewed conference/journals. The results from these clinical trials indicate very high accuracy of Thermalytix that is comparable to, and sometimes better than, Mammography.

Watch the CEO & Co-Founder of NIRAMAI, Dr. Geetha Manjunath, in conversation with INDIAai.

Image from Pxfuel