Facebook, alongside New York University School of Medicine, is working to speed up MRI exams by a factor of 10, CNNMoney reports.
Magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, is used to examine human organs, bones and tissue without the use of radiation or surgery. These tests can take up to an hour, during which time the patient must stay completely still so as not to distort the image.
Scientists at Facebook’s artificial intelligence labs think they have found a way to use a method called deep learning to make the process more efficient by training an algorithm to recognize the specific configuration of bones, ligaments and other body parts, allowing the program to create a portion of the image to save time.
"You could be in and out in five minutes. It would be a real game-changer," said Daniel Sodickson, NYU School of Medicine’s vice chair for radiology research and director of the Center of Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research.
"We and other institutions have taken some baby steps in using AI for this type of problem," Sodickson told TechCrunch. "The sense is that already in the first attempts, with relatively simple methods, we can do better than other current acceleration techniques — get better image quality and maybe accelerate further by some percentage, but not by large multiples yet."
Larry Zitnick, who is a member of Facebook’s Artificial Intelligence Research group, said that the company began talks with the school last year, because of the group’s desire to create something with real-world applications and benefits.
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