Using artificial intelligence to analyze placentas

Placentas can provide critical information about the health of the mother and baby, but only 20 percent of placentas are assessed by pathology exams after delivery in the U.S. The cost, time and expertise required to analyze them are prohibitive. Now, a team of researchers has developed a novel solution that could produce accurate, automated and near-immediate placental diagnostic reports through computerized photographic image analysis. Their research could allow all placentas to be examined, reduce the number of normal placentas sent for full pathological examination and create a less resource-intensive path to analysis for research--all of which may positively benefit health outcomes for mothers and babies. "The placenta drives everything to do with the pregnancy for the mom and baby, but we're missing placental data on 95 percent of births globally," said Alison Gernand, assistant professor of nutritional sciences in Penn State's College of Health and Human Development. "Creating a more efficient process that requires fewer resources will allow us to gather more comprehensive data to examine how placentas are linked to maternal and fetal health outcomes, and it will help us to examine placentas without special equipment and in minutes rather than days."