Indica Labs, an industry leader in quantitative digital pathology and image management solutions, and The Industrial Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research in Digital Diagnostics (iCAIRD), announced today an agreement to collaborate on the development of an AI-based digital pathology solution for the detection of cancer within lymph nodes from colorectal surgery cases. The primary aim of the innovative research project is to develop a tool which in the future may improve the efficiency of pathology teams within the National Health Service Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) reporting colorectal cancer cases and the detection of metastatic cancer in lymph nodes. Funded by a combination of Innovate UK and industrial partners, and based in Scotland, and supported by the West of Scotland Innovation Hub, iCAIRD is one of the largest healthcare AI research portfolios in the UK. A collaboration of 30 partners from across the NHS, industry, academia and technology, the program is currently delivering 35 ground-breaking AI projects across radiology and pathology, having grown from just 10 projects at the outset in 2019. The mission of iCAIRD is to establish a world-class center of excellence for implementation of artificial intelligence in digital diagnostics.

It is almost 40 years since a full-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine was used for the first time to scan a patient and generate diagnostic-quality images. The scanner and signal processing methods needed to produce an image were devised by a team of medical physicists including John Mallard, Jim Hutchinson, Bill Edelstein and Tom Redpath at the University of Aberdeen, leading to the widespread use of the MRI scanner, now a ubiquitous tool in radiology departments across the world. MRI was a game-changer in medical diagnostics because it didn't require exposure to ionising radiation (such as X-rays), and could generate images on multiple cross-sections of the body with superb definition of soft tissues. This allowed, for example, the direct visualisation of the spinal cord for the first time. Most people today will have undergone an MRI or know somebody who has.

Scotland is to get its own £15.8m The Glasgow-based centre will look at how AI could improve patient diagnosis and treatment. It will bring together experts to explore using AI in the treatment of strokes and some cancers. It is hoped that using technology to process large amounts of data will allow the health service to operate more quickly and efficiently. The centre will be known as the Industrial Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research in Digital Diagnostics (iCAIRD).