COVID-19 has become a gripping reality for many countries around the world. Every nation, state, and district is trying its best to keep it at bay. Declared a pandemic by the WHO, the novel coronavirus has been spreading aggressively for the past two months now. As a result, most of the world’s major countries have gone into stringent lockdowns to prevent its spread. Most medical experts have claimed that the only way to stop this spread is to test and identify patients as soon as possible. Therefore, medical teams are now raising against the clock to find diagnosis equipment and vaccines for the disease. It is at this juncture that an Indian company ARFICUS has come out with a claim that will bring much joy to medical practitioners if found to be true. Read on to know more about this company’s AI-based testing equipment which could help us greatly in the fight against this invisible enemy.
Miracle Diagnosis Test
Most states in India are having trouble getting their hands on enough testing kits, as the supply is limited. Few testing kits lead to few tests, which, in turn, lead to fewer confirmed patients. However, the Indian company, ARFICUS claims that they might have a solution to this problem. They claim that they could quickly become the country’s biggest ally in the fight against the novel coronavirus as their diagnosis kit could help determine patients at a staggering rate.
The company is presently in talks with the National Institute of Health Research-UK, and the World Health Organisation regarding their testing kit. They are working with them, and believe that soon enough, these tests will be deployed in the UK and the USA shortly. They also think that with the right support from the Indian government, they could help make testing much faster in India as well.
Aim to Help
ARFICUS wants to help as many people as they possibly can, and help countries in their fight to save humanity. The company, being of Indian origin, also wants to deploy the kit in the Indian sub-continent to help the government improve its existing testing capabilities. With the COVID-19 having taken hold of over 184 countries around the world, this help could be much needed for many! As the infection reaches a manageable extent in China, outside it, the virus is accelerating its spread. Being able to diagnose the disease earlier would help in preventing community spread of the COVID-19. This could, therefore, go a long way in helping stop the accelerated spread of the disease. The most significant advantage that early diagnosis gives doctors is the chance to isolate them at the earliest. With more and more patients testing positive while being asymptomatic, this could prove to be vital in stopping the disease.
Why this Helps
The current tests take, on average, around 2 hours to give a proper result. Since many quarantine centers do not have advanced examinations, this could take even longer. ARFICUS claims that their testing kit, which makes use of CT scan machines, can diagnose the disease in less than a minute! Furthermore, since these machines are available in most centers and hospitals, this could make testing much more accessible and convenient.
However, such a method requires multiple rechecks and reviews as the lungs have a lot of lesions on them. That is why ARFICUS makes use of Artificial Intelligence to check the CT results, which leads to 98% specificity and 99% accuracy. AI technologies, including computer vision and medical image analysis, help in evaluating the CT results to clinical doctors. This helps in overcoming the shortage of doctors qualified enough to gauge the scan results. Therefore, the system ARFICUS developed may be able to diagnose millions in a day, as the test takes less than a minute to decide.
Image Source: arficus.com
Best of Luck COVTREAT
The system name COVTREAT was trained on over 1678 COVID-19 patients with 99.56% accuracy. The company is now in talks with regulatory bodies in the US, UK, France, and India to mass-produce this kit and system, as per Sandeep Sinha, who is the Founder and CEO of ARFICUS. The test aims to gauge the disease by checking the CT for bilateral multilobar ground-glass opacification in the lower and right middle lobe. Other indications include Septal thickening, bronchiectasis, pleural thickening, and subpleural involvement in some instances.
AI-assisted medical image analysis helps in assisting the diagnosis, relieving pressure on doctors. They make use of the Dice Similarity Coefficient and Absolute Volume Difference to study the lesion area segmentation. The results found are claimed to be highly consistent with the other testing regime, meaning that this, if true, could help doctors significantly.
Being a cinephile with a love for all things outdoorsy, Athulya never misses a chance to chase inspiring stories or poke fun at things, even when the subject is herself. Currently pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering, she is someone innately interested in technical and scientific research. Music reviews and op-eds define her as they allow her to explore different perspectives. Though sometimes she thinks she makes more sense playing the guitar than she does while writing.