AI innovation will improve diagnostics of preventable infectious disease including TB & pneumonia for global health progress
Qure.ai has received a grant from the Gates Foundation. The multimillion-dollar grant will allow Qure.ai to develop a large open-source multi-modal database to further advance future prevention and identification innovations. It will support WHO lung-health diagnostic pathways plus augment non-identifiable clinical history, medical images (Chest X-Ray, Thoracic Ultrasound, High Resolution CT), cough/lung recordings, and laboratory or biological markers to enable researchers and innovators around the world to develop, validate, and refine new AI models for the good of all.
This grant will also allow Qure.ai to develop AI-enabled point-of-care ultrasound algorithms as a ‘tool’ for the early detection of TB and pneumonia, two of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases in under-resourced regions. Both are curable if caught early yet TB deaths are approximately 1.23 million annually, pneumonia 2 million each year, 700,000 of which are children under five.
“In a bid to reach the unreachable we have innovated our way around the world over the last 10 years, taking AI-enabled X-ray to some of the remotest regions of sub-Saharan Africa, to the heights of Everest and depths of rural Southeast Asia, tackling the detection and diagnosis of TB. This is powerful progress that has reduced diagnosis rates from 14 days to 1-2 days, without even a clinician present. Now, with this grant from the Gates Foundation, we are excited to leverage this expertise further to scale and reach more people,” states Prashant Warier, Founder and CEO, Qure.ai.
“With the very latest developments in digital health and artificial intelligence, Qure.ai can help reach healthcare’s blind spots, bringing high-quality diagnostics within reach of every clinic, health worker, and child, no matter where they live,” adds Dr Shibu Vijayan, Chief Medical Officer – Global Health at Qure.ai.
“This grant will allow us to build on the years of continuous innovation we have spearheaded in public health and our commitment to pushing the boundaries of what AI can do for global health. It brings together pneumonia, tuberculosis, and broader lung health priorities, with a focus on children in low and middle-income countries. A child dies of pneumonia every 43 seconds which is an unacceptable and an avoidable loss. It underscores the urgent need for better diagnostics and equitable access to care,” said Dr Justy Antony Chiramal, Project Lead and Clinical Director, Global Health Innovation at Qure.ai.
