IT RESOURCES HELP RADIOLOGISTS WITH DIAGNOSIS

Every day, thousands of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans are taken from different patients. Up to now, radiologists have had to analyze each individual image manually when looking for tumors. Now artificial intelligence is helping to make the diagnosis: FUSE-AI, a start-up based in Hamburg, has developed a system that can detect and classify tumors on MRI scans. The system not only highlights abnormalities in the image, it even assesses whether the tumor is benign or malignant. This helps radiologists to detect significant tissue changes faster and more reliably. For the intelligent algorithm used to analyze the MRI images, the North-German start-up relies on IT resources from the Open Telekom Cloud. Features at a glance:

  • FUSE-AI aims to improve cancer detection with artificial intelligence
  • Self-developed algorithm analyzes MRI images, detects and highlights abnormalities such as carcinomas, and outputs an assessment as to its malignancy
  • Leverages flexibly scalable, reliable and secure IT resources from the Open Telekom Cloud

Download the flyer "FUSE-AI"

 

THE CUSTOMER

The founders of the Hamburg-based start-up FUSE-AI already had a track record in the software development field. They developed apps for the medical sector. "Over time, it became increasingly clear that artificial intelligence would become an important tool in medicine," says Maximilian Waschka, one of the founders of FUSE-AI. "From this we had the idea to use machine learning, especially neural networks, to support physicians to make diagnoses." In 2015, four Hamburg entrepreneurs turned their idea into reality and designed initial versions of an algorithm that can detect symptoms of cancer automatically from tomography images. Their artificial intelligence was aimed at reliably finding, highlighting and classifying tumors.

"This is how we can contribute to the detection of many common diseases even more reliably and quickly. We not only reduce the effort and costs involved, but thanks to artificial intelligence we’re also increasing the patients’ chances of being cured.”  

Sabrina Reimers-Kipping, PhD biochemist and co-founder of FUSE-AI

THE CHALLENGE

An MRI scan provides more than 2,000 images - per patient and per exam in the scanner. For a radiologist, the task is then to scrutinize the images for irregularities. They must also recognize and ignore so-called artifacts, or false alarms that may arise from errors in the imaging process. At the same time, they have to spot real carcinomas and ideally recognize whether the tumor is benign or malignant. A complex task that artificial intelligence can solve. Provided enormous computing power is available. But there is a limitation: “Our demand fluctuates. We only need very high capacities for the image analysis," says Dirk Schäfer, an expert in machine learning and co-founder of FUSE-AI. "Keeping this level of IT resources permanently available for such analyses would be very uneconomic." So the recent start-up was looking for flexible cloud resources to run the solution reliably and securely. "Another key advantage is the time we save. Because the platform services of the Open Telekom Cloud, such as the distributed Message Service (DMS), take on administrative tasks for us. This allows our developers to focus more on their core tasks," says Schäfer.

 

THE SOLUTION

The Hamburg-based entrepreneurs applied to Telekom's start-up program: TechBoost. The ICT provider supports suitably qualified young companies with software-based business models with 100,000 euros of start-up funding for computing power from the Open Telekom Cloud, the public cloud service offered by Deutsche Telekom. In addition, TechBoost start-ups receive discounts on mobile, fixed-network and internet tariffs, and sales and marketing support. With their innovative solution, the founders of FUSE-AI qualified for TechBoost at the first attempt and are now making use of the scalable IT resources from the multi-certified, highly secure data centers of Deutsche Telekom in Saxony-Anhalt.

 

CUSTOMER BENEFITS

From 2018 onwards FUSE-AI will provide radiologists with round-the-clock diagnostic support from the cloud on demand. "The Open Telekom Cloud is a wonderful tool that provides us with the flexibility and scalability to implement a solution of this kind," says Schäfer. But that was just the beginning. FUSE-AI also intends to support physicians in other diagnostic imaging procedures. To achieve this, the founders, in conjunction with specialists such as dermatologists, have developed a dermatoscope, a device which takes pictures of the skin. Like the MRI images, these are also analyzed in the cloud using FUSE-AI’s artificial intelligence. "This is how we can contribute to detecting many common diseases even more reliably and quickly," says Sabrina Reimers-Kipping, a PhD biochemist and co-founder of FUSE-AI. “This not only reduces the effort and costs involved, but thanks to artificial intelligence it also increases the patients' chances of being cured.”

 

×
Cookie Consent and Data Processing

We use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with the best possible online experience and to tailor content to your interests. By means of the technologies used, information can be stored, enriched and read on your device.

By clicking on "Accept all", you agree to the access to your device as well as the processing of your data, the creation and processing of individual user profiles across websites as well as partners and devices, as well as the transfer of your data to third-party providers. Your consent via the "Accept all" button also forms the basis for data transfers to third countries (Art. 49 GDPR). Deutsche Telekom cannot guarantee a level of data protection that corresponds to the EU for data transfers in so-called unsafe third countries. Unsafe third countries are countries outside the EU for which there is no adequacy decision by the EU Commission and for which there are no suitable safeguards within the meaning of Art. 46 GDPR.

In third countries, for example, it is possible that local authorities have access to your usage data and information about your products ordered on this digital service and that the exercise of your rights as a data subject is excluded or at least restricted. Information on transfers to third countries can be found here.

Further information, including on data processing by third-party providers and the possibility of revoking your consent at any time, can be found in the settings and in our privacy policy.

Manage your privacy settings

In order to provide you with an optimal user experience, we use cookies and similar technologies. This includes processing for the operation and optimisation of the site as well as for services, such as the use of text or video chat, as well as advertising based on your usage behaviour. For example, it can be recognized if you visit our pages repeatedly from the same device. We would like to give you the choice of which processing you allow:


Required processing

This processing is necessary to enable you to navigate through the pages and use essential functions.

They enable basic functions, such as order processing in the online shop and access to secure areas of the digital service. In addition, they are used for the anonymous evaluation of user behavior, which we use to continuously develop our digital service for you.

Services from other companies (self-responsible third-party providers)

On the Deutsche Telekom Healthcare and Security Solutions GmbH side, third-party services are integrated that provide their services independently or under joint responsibility with Telekom Deutschland GmbH. In this process, data and information are transmitted to third-party providers, processed for their own advertising purposes and merged with data from third parties.

When you visit web pages of Deutsche Telekom Healthcare and Security Solutions GmbH, data is collected by means of cookies or similar technologies and transmitted to third parties, in some cases for Deutsche Telekom's own purposes. To what extent, for what purposes and on the basis of which legal basis further processing is carried out for the third-party provider's own purposes, please refer to the privacy policy of the third-party provider (Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, emetriq, etc.). You can find information on the independent third-party providers here.

In addition, we use a cross-device profiling mechanism in our digital services using IDs and email hashes and transmit socio-demographic information, such as postcode, age group and gender, to our partner company emetriq GmbH, which merges and processes the information with its own data for advertising profiling, also for its own purposes. Details can be found here. Telekom Deutschland GmbH and emetriq GmbH are joint controllers for cross-device profiling in accordance with Art. 26 GDPR. Further information on the responsibility of the partners and your rights as a data subject can be found here

Change SettingsSave SettingsAccept AllOnly required

×