Adventa was able to quickly adapt to a critical new use case by using Clarifai for computer vision AI: Detecting COVID-19 in chest x-rays. They achieved accuracy rates of 95-99% in initial tests. The platform is called Remotim.
It all started with AI for gemstones
As of March of 2020, Adventa was already busy building upon a successful computer vision (CV) deployment in the precious gems industry. By using the Clarifai platform, they had been able to use CV to help dealers value precious gems and detect fakes.
By training a model to recognize specific patterns seen in the internal structure of gems they were able to automatically identify variations in inclusions and color that indicate where a gem came from, and whether or not it was man made - key factors for determining price in the gem marketplace.
Working with precious gems helped them understand the enormous potential for using computer vision products in other areas. As a result, they set their sights on an even bigger challenge: affordable healthcare in Sri Lanka, Asia Pacific, Africa and rest of the world.
Computer Vision-Powered Telemedicine
Affordable healthcare is a global challenge. With a chronic shortage of trained experts, and limited access to the latest technology, there is a consistent demand for new ways to serve patients.
The use of radiology has grown substantially in the last several decades. Much like a jeweler peering inside a transparent gem, X-rays, CT scans, ultrasound, and other technologies allow radiologists look inside the human body without the need for surgical intervention. But with a global shortage of radiologists, even if medical images can be obtained, it is often difficult to get the images properly studied and interpreted.
This is where computer vision, and Adventa's new AI solution, comes in. By integrating the Clarifai API with a mobile app, Adventa has been developing technology that uses the predictive power of AI to provide a"Medical Scanning as a Service (MSaaS)" solution that can reach a large and underserved population of patients.
The advantages of rapid model development and easy deployment
Adventa had initially set its sights on skin and ear related health conditions. Then the world was sideswiped by the COVID-19 pandemic. Adventa wasted no time in adapting, and the Clarifai platform made it easy to develop and deploy new models.
There is a growing body of evidence that suggests medical imagery provides a highly accurate basis for COVID-19 diagnosis. Adventa was able to achieve promising results with their own work, leveraging Clarifai's transfer learning technology and pre-trained models to quickly develop a new COVID-19 classifier that was able to correctly identify COVID-19 in 95-99% of cases. They were able to get these results with a surprisingly small training set - just 250 images per class.
Adventa is now iterating on and refining their model to be more sensitive to early stage COVID-19 detection and are working in partnership with a teaching hospital in Sri Lanka for testing and development.
Adventa hopes that their AI-powered MSaaS technology will be able to reduce diagnosis time from days to minutes, and with a simple mobile application they will be able to reach patients who would not otherwise be able to get healthcare. By using the Clarifai platform they will be able to improve their models over time, and deploy new model versions effortlessly.
