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MEDICAL TOURISM NEWS NEW AI SYSTEM TO DETECT AND GRADE PROSTATE CANCER

Researchers have developed a method based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for diagnosis and grading of prostate cancer. The AI-system has the potential to solve one of the bottlenecks in the modern prostate cancer histopathology by providing more accurate diagnosis and better treatment decisions, they said. The study, published in the journal The Lancet Oncology, shows that the AI-system is as good at identifying and grading prostate cancer as world-leading Uro-pathologists.

"Our results show that it is possible to train an AI-system to detect and grade prostate cancer on the same level as leading experts," said study researcher Martin Eklund, Associate Professor at Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

"This has the potential to significantly reduce the workload of Uro-pathologists and allow them to focus on the most difficult cases," Eklund added.

A problem in modern prostate pathology is that there is a certain degree of subjectivity in the assessments of the biopsies. Different pathologists can reach different conclusions even though they study the same samples.

study said. In this context, the researchers see significant potential to use the AI-technology to increase the reproducibility of the pathological assessments.

To train and test the AI system, the researchers digitized more than 8,000 biopsies taken from some 1,200 Swedish men in the ages of 50-69 to high-resolution images using digital pathology scanners. About 6,600 of the samples were used to train the AI system to spot the difference between biopsies with or without cancer.

The remaining samples, and additional sets of samples collected from other labs, were used to test the AI system. Its results were also compared against the assessments of 23 world-leading Uro-pathologists. The findings showed that the AI-system was almost near-perfect in determining whether a sample contained cancer or not, as well as in estimating the length of the cancer tumour in the biopsy.

When it comes to determining severity of the prostate cancer, the so-called Gleason score, the AI system was on par with the international experts. The initial findings are promising but more validation is needed before the AI system may be rolled out broadly in clinical practice, according to the researchers.

This is a major breakthrough in transplantation medicine, which may increase the number of available organs for transplantation and save the lives of patients suffering from severe liver diseases or a variety of cancers. Injured cadaveric livers, initially not suitable for use in transplantation, may regain full function while perfused in the new machine for several days.

Researchers have developed a machine that repairs injured human liver and keeps them alive outside the body for one week. According to a study published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, this breakthrough may increase the number of available organs for transplantation, saving many lives of patients with severe liver diseases or cancer.

"The success of this unique perfusion system -- developed over a four-year period by a group of surgeons, biologists and engineers -- paves the way for many new applications in transplantation and cancer medicine, helping patients with no liver grafts available," said study researcher PierreAlain Clavi from the University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland.

Until now, liver could be stored safely outside the body for only a few hours. With the novel perfusion technology, liver—even injured ones—can now be kept alive outside of the body for an entire week. According to the researchers, the basis for this technology is a complex perfusion system, mimicking most core body functions close to physiology. The Liver4Life project was developed under the umbrella of Wyss Zurich institute, which brought together the highly specialised technical and biomedical knowledge of experts from the University Hospital, Zurich.

"The biggest challenge in the initial phase of our project was to find a common language that would allow communication between the clinicians and engineers," said researcher Philipp Rudolf von Rohr.

The study shows that six of ten perfused poor-quality human livers, declined for transplantation by all centres in Europe, recovered to full function within a week of perfusion on the machine.

The next step will be to use these organs for transplantation. The proposed technology opens a huge avenue for many applications offering new life for many patients with end stage liver disease or cancer.

NEW MODEL TO IDENTIFY PATIENTS WITH COLORECTAL CANCER

in at-risk patients. Their technology works by screening for methylation markers, which are DNA modifications that are frequently found in tumours.

Anew machine learning (ML) platform can identify patients with colorectal cancer and help predict their disease severity and survival, finds a new study.

The non-invasive method adds to recent advances in technologies that analyse circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) and could help spot colorectal cancers in at-risk patients at earlier stages. Like many other malignancies, colorectal cancers are most treatable if they are detected before they have metastasized to other tissues.

Colonoscopies are the 'gold standard' for diagnosis, but they are uncomfortable and invasive and can lead to complications, which leaves patients less willing to undergo screening. For the study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, lead researcher Huiyan Luo from University Cancer Center in China and colleagues leveraged machine learning techniques to develop a less invasive diagnostic method that can detect colorectal cancer The researchers first created a diagnostic model based on nine methylation markers associated with colorectal cancer, which they identified by studying plasma samples from 801 patients with colorectal cancer as well as 1,021 controls. This model accurately distinguished patients from healthy individuals with a sensitivity and specificity of 87.5 per cent and 89.9 per cent, respectively, and outperformed a clinically available blood test named CEA, the study said.

Furthermore, a modified prognostic model helped predict the patients' risk of death over a follow-up period of 26.6 months on average, especially when combined with established clinical characteristics such as tumour location.

One methylation marker was particularly useful, as screening for it alone spotted cases of colorectal cancer and precancerous lesions in a prospective study of 1,493 at-risk individuals, according to the researchers. The researchers concluded that studies with longer follow-up periods will be needed to further assess their model's reliability for clinicians and patients.

UTTARAKHAND WOOS INVESTORS TO SPRUCE UP WELLNESS SECTOR MEDICAL TOURISM NEWS

Uttarakhand Minister of AYUSH Harak Singh Rawat speaks during the road-show event at Kochi. Also seen are Sonika, Additional Secretary (Tourism), L Fanai, Director General (Industries), Manisha Panwar (Principal Secretary, Industries), Dr S Sajikumar (former Chairman, CII, Kerala) and S A Murugesan, Managing Director (SIIDCUL)

Uttarakhand, the scenic North Indian state nestled in the lap of the Himalayas, is wooing investors big time in its quest to become the global wellness epicenter.

The State government is organising a two-day ‘Wellness Summit’ on April 17-18 at Dehradun, the State capital, to showcase Uttarakhand's investment opportunities in the sector that encompasses AYUSH, eco-tourism and hospitality, nutraceuticals, organic and health food, herbal cosmetics and natural fibers, among others.

“We’re looking to build on strengths endowed on us by nature and our deep rooted traditions in Yoga, Ayurveda, Meditation and Naturopathy. The Uttarakhand government has created a conducive environment for investors,” said Harak Singh Rawat, State Minister for AYUSH and AYUSH Education, while speaking at a roadshow event held at Kochi as a precursor to the summit.

While observing that his State had many similarities with Kerala, another major wellness destination, Rawat said there was need for greater co-operation among the industry players in the two States. “For instance, we’re much ahead when it comes to herbal medicinal production while Kerala has many established industries in the sector. A tie-up will be mutually beneficial,” he noted.

In Uttarakhand, AYUSH and wellness sector has been given the status of industry, which allows investors to enjoy all benefits available to the industrial sector. A single window portal has been set up for investors to reduce paper work and formalities and to make issuance of clearances by various departments easier.

“A chunk of the millennials and the elderly now firmly believe in maintaining good health rather than going in for treatment when health complications emerge. Organic food has improved the well-being of the people and India is now the cynosure of everyone concerned about wellness initiatives. The medicinal value of Himalayan herbal products are acknowledged by the world as they are seeking ways to attain a healthy living. They are avoiding modern systems of medicine and embracing Indian lifestyle methods. Uttarakhand is aspiring to become global capital of Yoga,” he said.

Rawat said Uttarakhand will soon have its own ‘Organic Agriculture Act’. It will result in development of nearly 10,000 organic clusters in the State. “Ours is the first State to come up with a policy to allow leasing of agricultural land for 30 years,” he said.

The various areas identified for investment include AYUSH (township, spiritual economic zone, global wellness city, etc), Healthcare, Aroma, Natural Fibre and Tourism.

“In the tourism sector, we are looking to develop 13 new destinations. On a whole, we’ve identified 800 acres of land for infrastructure development. That includes the proposed Aroma park (41 acre) at Kashipur, Madan Negi Estate, Tehri (27.89 acre) and Marchula industrial estate (35.83 acre) in Almora,” said Manisha Panwar, Principal Secretary, Industries.

Contact details IPFC, Directorate of Industries, Industrial Area, Patel Nagar, Dehradun (Phone) 1800-270-1213 (Mail to) ipfc@investuttarakhand.com

MEDICAL TOURISM NEWS MRI MAY PREDICT INTELLIGENCE LEVEL IN CHILDREN

Researchers have used ensemble methods based on deep learning 3D analysis networks to answer the global Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) prevision challenge for children.

Importantly, they made predictions for both the fluid intelligence level and the target variable independent from age, gender, brain size or MRI scanner used. MRI is a common technique used to obtain images of human internal organs and tissues. Scientists wondered whether the intelligence level can be predicted from an MRI brain image.

"Our team develops deep learning methods for computer vision tasks in MRI data analysis, amongst other things," said study researcher Ekaterina Kondratyev from Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) in Russia.

"In this study, we applied ensembles of classifiers to 3D of super precision neural networks: with this approach, one can classify an image as it is, without first reducing its dimension and, therefore, without losing valuable information," said Kondratyeva.

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) database contains a total of over 11,000 structural and functional MRI images of children aged 9-10. In 2013, NIH launched the first grandscale study of its kind in adolescent brain research, Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development, to see if and how

teenagers' hobbies and habits affect their further brain development.

NIH scientists launched an international competition, making the enormous NIH database available to a broad community for the first time ever. The participants were given a task of building a predictive model based on brain images. As part of the competition, the Skoltech team applied neural networks for MRI image processing. To do this, they built a network architecture enabling several mathematical models to be applied to the same data in order to increase the prediction accuracy, and used a novel ensemble method to analyse the MRI data.

In their recent study, Skoltech researchers focused on predicting the intelligence level, or the so called 'fluid intelligence', which characterises the biological abilities of the nervous system and has little to do with acquired knowledge or skills. Importantly, they made predictions for both the fluid intelligence level and the target variable independent from age, gender, brain size or MRI scanner used.

The results of the study helped find the correlation between the child's "fluid intelligence" and brain anatomy. Although the prediction accuracy is less than perfect, the models produced during this competition will help shed light on various aspects of cognitive, social, emotional and physical development of adolescents.

NEW DEVICE TO CAPTURE AND IDENTIFY VIRUSES DEVELOPED MEDICAL TOURISM NEWS

Researchers have developed a device to quickly capture and identify various strains of virus. "We have developed a fast and inexpensive handheld device that can capture viruses based on size," said study researcher Mauricio Terrones from Penn State University.

"Our device uses arrays of nanotubes engineered to be comparable in size to a wide range of viruses. We then use Raman spectroscopy to identify the viruses based on their individual vibration," Terrones added.

This device, called a VIRRION, has a wide range of possible uses. For farmers, for example, early detection of a virus in the field can save an entire crop. Early detection of a virus in livestock can save a herd from illness. Humans also will benefit by the detection of viruses in minutes rather than in days with current methods. man signal so that we are able to detect the virus molecule in very low concentrations. We then use machine learning techniques to create a library of virus types," Terrones added.

According to the researchers, the VIRRION enables the rapid enrichment of virus particles from any type of sample -- environmental or clinical -- which jump-starts viral characterisation. This has applications in virus emergence, virus discovery and in diagnosis.

"We synthesized a gradient of aligned carbon nanotube forest arrays to capture different viruses according to their size and detect them in-situ using Raman spectroscopy," said study lead author Ying-Ting Yeh.

"We designed and assembled a portable platform that enriches virus particles from several millilitres of clinical samples in a couple of minutes," Ting Yeh added.

According to the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, because of its size and low cost, such a device would be useful in every doctor's office as well as in remote locations when disease outbreaks occur.

Currently, virologists estimate that 1.67 million unknown viruses are in animals, a number of which can be transmitted to humans. Known viruses, such as H5N1, Zika and Ebola have caused widespread illness and death.

The World Health Organisation states that early detection can halt virus spread by enabling rapid deployment of countermeasures. "Most current techniques require large and expensive pieces of equipment," Terrones said.

“The VIRRION is a few centimetres across. We add gold nanoparticles to enhance the Ra"We hope to use this device for the capture and sequencing of single virions, giving us a much better handle on the evolution of the virus in real time," said Elodie Ghedin from New York University.

IFAH ‘TOP 100 HEALTHCARE LEADERS’ AWARD TO APOLLO STAFF

Jithu Jose, Vice President, International division, Apollo Hospitals Pvt Ltd, has won the ‘Top 100 Healthcare Leaders’ award, instituted by the IFAH (International Forum on Advancements in Healthcare). The award was bestowed to Jithu during the event held in Dubai on December 16, 2019, after he topped the ‘Advancements and Innovation’ category.

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‘INDIA HEALS’ EVOKES GOOD RESPONSE; SEPC PLANS MORE B2B MEETS ‘ INDIA HEALS’ EVOKES GOOD RESPONSE; SEPC PLANS MORE B2B MEETS

The Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC), set up by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, aims to leverage two to three new foreign markets by the end of this year for the benefit of Indian healthcare service providers. This in the wake of the success of India 'India Heals 2020', the recently-held international healthcare B2B event at Kochi, which evoked encouraging response. Over 200 foreign delegates had attended the meet and evinced interest in various medical services being provided by Indian entrepreneurs.

“The second edition of ‘India Heals’ was a big success as many MoUs (Memorandum of Understanding) were signed over the three-day event. More than 500 B2B (Business to business) meetings were held between foreign buyers and Indian exhibitors. We’re now planning to hold similar events abroad this year itself, paving the way for

presence of Indian healthcare service providers in new foreign markets.

"Similarly, we want to bring more foreign buyers in the next edition, for which we’ve already received invitations from states like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh,” Sangeeta Godbole, IRS, Director General, SEPC, said.

The Council takes special care to ensure presence of only genuine service providers. “For instance, foreign patients looking to avail treatment from India need only to visit our website ‘Indiahealthcaretourism.com’ to select the healthcare choices that suits them. The site contains only NABH-accredited hospitals. We’re overhauling the site so

as to provide all details -- treatment costs, distance, specialties, doctors available and the like,” she said.

Upasana Arora, Director of Yashoda Super Specialty Hospitals and also Member, Governing Council of Healthcare, SEPC, noted that the biggest attraction for foreign clients is the quality healthcare services offered by the country at affordable prices.

“The Ministry of Health has supported us with various measures like relaxation of visa norms. The SEPC is also working hard to enable the Indian healthcare industry to reach out to more international markets. All this will further help in growth of Indian healthcare sector,” she added.

Commander Jelson Kavalakkat, CEO, Aster Medicity, observed that the healthcare sector in the country now require a focused approach to have a sizable share in the global medical travel sector. “India’s healthcare industry has had a late bloom. Previously, tourists used to come only for minor ailments and wellness treatments. The trend has changed and now they are availing treatment here for complex medical conditions. Besides quality service, factors such as quick consultation, shorter treatment duration, trust, integrity and transparency are all helping in the growth of the sector,” he said. Not just affordable costs, but also the high standards of the Indian medical industry is now recognised by the international community, noted Dr Gayatri Vyaas Mahindroo, Director, National Accreditation Board of Hospitals and Healthcare (NABH) providers. “Currently we’ve over 1000 big and 4000 other hospitals accredited. The aim is to prevent unintentional harm to clients in any way and to help them avail only quality healthcare. The accreditation standard for traditional medicine systems like Ayurveda is also being formulated,” she said.

15 A Complete Magazine on Healthcare in Asia Overall, 'India Heals 2020' saw over 20 exhibition stalls being put up by major healthcare providers. “We’re happy to attend the B-2-B meet in Kochi, especially at a time when we’re commencing our operations in Kerala. We had fruitful interactions with the visiting delegates. Such initiatives will go a long way to make India a preferred medical tourism destination,” Jithu Jose, Vice President, International division, Apollo Chennai, said.