Chula Engineering and Chula Medicine co-invent an innovative device for a rapid gastrointestinal cancer detection that yields accurate results hoping to foster preventive medicine in gastrointestinal malignancy and reduce the number of cancer patients.
Many types of cancer can be treated if found at an early stage, such as gastric and colorectal cancer, the third and fourth leading causes of cancer deaths in the world (after lung and liver cancer). This is especially true with colorectal cancer, the topmost common among many patients in Thailand and is likely to increase proportionately with an increasing elderly population. bangkok university
Current statistics show that in 2021, 15 million seniors (over 50 years old) in Thailand are at risk of developing colorectal cancer.
“For seniors, the risk of colorectal cancer increases, so it is advisable for people at the aged of 50 and over to undergo for a regular colonoscopy every 5-10 years to detect early neoplasm such as colonic polyp. If this population can access to such health services, it will be a comprehensive approach that allows patients to be tested and treated promptly at the curable stage, which can help reduce the rate of illness and death from the disease.”
This is the rationale behind the latest AI innovation from Chulalongkorn University — “DeepGI” gastrointestinal monitor to help detect abnormal polyps in the colon co-developed by Associate Professor Dr. Peerapon Vateekul, Department of Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, with Professor Dr. Rangsun Rerknimitr, M.D., Associate Professor Dr. Satimai Aniwan, M.D., and Lecturer Kasenee Tiankanon, M.D. from the Excellence Center For GI Endoscopy, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, the Thai Red Cross Society.
With the support from Chulalongkorn University Technology Center (UTC) and ESM Solutions Co., Ltd., the research team has collected colonoscopy data images since 2019 until they successfully developed DeepGI or Deep Technology for Gastrointestinal Tracts to detect abnormality in GI tracts and later the system has launched in the real patients at the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital since late 2021.
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