Thammasat School of Engineering has developed a new system, AIChest4All, to precisely detect an abnormality specific to COVID-19, namely pneumonia. Upon detection, a medical team will further provide screening to determine whether the pneumonia was caused by COVID-19.
The accuracy of screening results can be as high as 90%, so it will be possible to screen pneumonia patients with the risk of COVID-19 in a timely manner. Previously, diagnosing abnormalities from X-rays with results interpreted by radiologists can require as many as 5 minutes per image. However, AIChest4All provides swift results by requiring just 1-2 seconds per image, which provides convenience in the work of medical teams.
An important component of AIChest4All that ensures improvement in the work of medical teams is the cloud system. Thus, it functions by connecting X-ray data from the hundreds of public hospitals nationwide under the supervision of the Department of Medical Services under the Ministry of Public Health for processing and returning the results instantly to the medical teams at their origins.
It can support each use without even a second of interruption. In other words, it means that results can be obtained in real-time. At present, TSE has installed a centre for this system in two locations, namely, the Thammasat School of Engineering (Rangsit Campus) and Udonthani Cancer Hospital, and they have been designed for continuous 24-hour use every day.
At present, AIChest4All has totally changed the face of public sector investment. In the past, it was necessary to allocate millions of baht for budgets for accessing radiology services, but TSE has delivered AIChest4All to hundreds of public hospitals under the Department of Medical Services under the Department of Public Health for immediate use without any cost, with the hope that medical teams will have an effective medical tool that reduces complicated procedures that also minimizes budgetary expenses and that the Thai people will have access to fast and accurate services.
TSE has passed on this intention to students in related programs such as in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Software Engineering (Soft-en) and Engineering Program in Industrial Electrical Engineering under the Program of Innovative Engineering (TU-PINE).