Artificial intelligence identifies bacteria images quickly, accurately

Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are using artificial intelligence to identify images of bacteria quickly and accurately through an AI-enhanced microscope, which they contend has the potential to alleviate the current national shortage of clinical microbiologists. BIDMC's Clinical Microbiology Laboratory is a "hidden part" of the Boston hospital, explains James Kirby, MD, director of the lab, but one that serves a critical function in diagnosing potentially deadly blood infections which is passed along to clinicians to determine appropriate therapies. "We have a microbiology technologist workforce, and one the things they spend a lot of time doing is looking at patient specimens in order to make a diagnosis of the type of infection people have," says Kirby, who is also associate professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School. It takes time, and it takes a lot of skill." However, Kirby notes that there is a nationwide shortage of highly trained microbiologists, ...