Tunisian researchers develop AI coronavirus scanner

Using artificial intelligence, the doctors scan X-ray images of a patient’s lungs and can tell with 90 per cent reliability whether they have the infection

Abir Mdini, a physician of SAMU Tunisia, wears protective equipment before visiting the coronavirus patients in Tunis, Tunisia. EPA

Members of Tunisian Red Crescent prepare food packages for the elderly and low-income families in the coastal town of Ezzahra near Tunis during the coronavirus pandemic. AFP

Saida Zelfani, a physician of SAMU Tunisia, dressed in personal protective equipment (PPE) puts on latex glove before attempting to get a swab sample of suspected Covid-19 patients in the capital Tunis. AFP

President Kais Saied taking part in the distribution of aid packages amid the coronavirus pandemic, in Gammarth town on the outskirts of Tunis. AFP

Members of Tunisian Red Crescent prepare food packages for the elderly and low-income families in the coastal town of Ezzahra near Tunis. AFP

A member of Tunisian Red Crescent prepares food packages for the elderly and low-income families in the coastal town of Ezzahra near Tunis. AFP

An employee of the Tunisian Social Solidarity Union prepares food packages for the elderly and low-income families in Tunis. AFP

Medical and paramedical staff of SAMU Tunisia dressed in personal protective equipment (PPE) head out to visit a coronavirus patient in the capital Tunis. AFP

A paramedic rescuer of SAMU Tunisia looks out from the back of an ambulance in the capital Tunis. AFP

Tunisian engineers have created a web-based platform that scans lung X-rays and evaluates whether patients are likely to be suffering from the novel coronavirus.

While it’s not the first initiative of its kind in the world, its creators say it is the first to be openly available. And though not a diagnostic tool, the technology provides a “90 per cent” reliable indication of the probability of infection, they said.

Teachers and students at the Tunisian engineering and technology institute INSAT have been developing the platform – Covid-19 Exam Ct/XR images by AI – since mid-March, with the support of German development agency GIZ, the Italian Society of Medical Radiology and US tech company IBM.

Thousands of X-rays of the lungs of both healthy people and Covid-19 patients have been fed into the platform, allowing artificial intelligence to learn to recognise the marks of the virus on the lungs.

Improvements still need to be made for patients presenting with few symptoms, but the technology “allows the classification of a large number of images in a very short time, at low cost,” Mustapha Hamdi, an academic and one of the platform’s developers, told AFP on Friday.

“The more images we upload to the platform, the more exact and reliable it becomes.”

It is still in the test phase, under evaluation by Tunisia’s health ministry. But if approved, the technology would be particularly useful in areas of the country that lack major hospitals and specialist doctors.

“The initial idea was to allow the remote interior regions [of Tunisia] to do mass analysis,” Mr Hamdi said.

Uploading an X-ray image to the platform and running the test generates a recognition score, he explained –requiring only an X-ray image and an internet connection.

X-ray procedures are inexpensive and common in Tunisia’s public hospitals.

Fawzi Haddad, a doctor in Tunisia’s main hospital for coronavirus patients, called the platform “a very good idea”.

But, he noted, “it’s still in the experimental stage.”

Tunisia’s health ministry has officially declared 879 novel coronavirus cases, including 38 deaths, since early March.