ANNA BRENNAN DetectED-X Research Assistant
Cloud-based Technology Reduces COVID-19 Mortality Rates
The number of patients suffering from the life-
founders in 2010 at the University of Sydney and
threatening symptoms of COVID-19 has outpaced
implemented across Australia, Europe, Asia and
the number of skilled staff required to accurately
North America.
diagnose the lung CT scans. Because of this, a
In 2019, the Australian Government commissioned
technological platform assisting in the diagnoses
our team to deliver a similar solution for diagnosing
of incoming cases has been essential.
dust disease using High-Resolution Computed
DetectED-X is a cloud-based technology that
Tomography. The platform then accommodated
presents itself as an educational solution that
a COVID-19 diagnosis tool during 2020. Through
improves radiological detection rates based on
DetectED-X’s free virtual clinical environment,
an intelligent interactive educational platform.
clinicians are able to become better at recognising
The COVID-19 pandemic took over all aspects of
the early CT signs of COVID-19.
life for Australians, illuminating the importance
DetectED-X is a browser-based application
of healthcare and healthcare workers. So as
that allows clinicians to improve their detection
a response to that pandemic, this program
performance on their computer or laptop. In the
was updated to be utilised in a way to assist
clinician’s own reading environment, they view
radiologists dealing with COVID-19.
and judge a set of Lung CT cases via their machine
DetectED-X was founded by a group of Australian-
with connectivity to the internet. They view the
based radiation and imaging experts to help
cases in DICOM format on the computer and mark
doctors and radiologists worldwide to diagnose
the cases using online scoring software via their
cases of breast cancer, lung case and COVID-19
trackpad or mouse.
faster and more accurately. DetectED-X follows on
Once the clinicians have completed the test-
from the highly successful BreastScreen Reader
sets, they are presented with results describing
Assessment Strategy (BREAST) platform, which
their performance metrics including specificity,
was created by a team including DetectED-X
sensitivity, true positive, true negative, false
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The Health Advocate • AUGUST 2021
