Would healthcare be better if doctors had two brains?

The power of AI joins the fight against the Big C

And few things in healthcare need the help of AI more than cancer diagnosis and treatment. Already, leading research universities are working with Lenovo AI Innovation Centres on diagnostic models for various types of cancers to help make better diagnoses for patients.

Deep learning methodologies match MRIs or CT scans of new suspected cases with a huge database of cases previously diagnosed by thousands of doctors. It’s the ultimate expert ready-reference for radiologists. AIs can do all this, but only when they’re backed up by a robust cloud computing environment matched to always-available scalable storage systems and quick-response resources that sit at the edge of the network.

But what happens when AI-assisted diagnosis meets other smarter technologies? You extend the diagnostic strength of major hospitals to front-line health centres, and that’s what Lenovo’s E-Health solution is doing. Currently focused on liver tumour analysis, E-Health incorporates doctors’ expertise with deep learning algorithms and 3D reconstruction modelling. It helps doctors better understand tumour parameters and more accurately interpret CT images. E-Health helps doctors communicate with patients, bringing more humanity, compassion and trust to a difficult moment.

Redefining what’s possible in medicine

Thermal tumour ablation is a minimally invasive and promising cancer treatment. Still, it presents one main drawback preventing it from becoming a first-line treatment: doctors cannot visualise and control tissue damage in real-time. TechsoMed relied on Lenovo’s AI-optimised workstations to create and run BioTrace and give doctors the ability to see what was once hidden from view. With real-time, continuous monitoring and analysis throughout the procedure, BioTrace lets doctors maximise target tissue ablation while minimising damage to healthy tissue. Plus, it dramatically reduces suffering and costs up to ten times less than radiotherapy or chemotherapy. All it takes is a few minutes – and powerful AI algorithms developed and running on Lenovo’s smarter infrastructure solutions.

The innovations extend well beyond cancer treatment.

• Around the world, radiology is both understaffed and critical to patient care and hospitals. AI can help. With pattern recognition and machine learning, radiologists can tap into AI’s power to help prioritise patients and optimise doctors’ time. It also provides a crucial second pair of “eyes” that can reduce avoidable errors.
• With the help of Lenovo intelligent Computing Orchestration (LiCO), researchers at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center built and trained an AI model to detect retinal pathology in under ten minutes—potentially saving the sight of millions.

Smarter technology can save lives, but only in partnership with researchers, doctors and patients. Optimising the technology to meet changing challenges is the job of a different breed of healthcare partner: the IT professional. But with Lenovo’s Healthcare Services, they can concentrate on improving patient care and outcomes. By giving doctors the ability to tap into a wealth of AI, Lenovo and IT professionals devoted to healthcare enable a revolution in medical research and personalised treatment.