Artificial intelligence (AI) applications are attached to X-ray machines, assisting doctors in finding patients suspected of having tuberculosis based on lesions, thereby prescribing more accurate testing for tuberculosis bacteria.
The information was given by Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Binh Hoa, Deputy Director of the Central Lung Hospital, at the Scientific conference on Research and application of high technology in lung disease management and tuberculosis control, May 24, in Hanoi.
“Thanks to AI, the efficiency of detecting tuberculosis has doubled compared to before,” Associate Professor Hoa said, adding that according to statistics, the rate of tuberculosis detection in medical facilities deploying AI is twice as high as in other countries. non-implementation facility. Comparing the time before and after implementing AI in a medical facility, the number of tuberculosis cases also increased significantly.
Vietnam is currently burdened with tuberculosis, recording more than 106,000 tuberculosis cases in 2023, 11,000 people died from this disease, twice as many as the number of deaths from traffic accidents. The number of tuberculosis patients is increasing every year, specifically the number of cases recorded in 2023 will increase by 2.2% compared to 2022 and increase by 34% compared to 2021 – the year heavily affected by Covid-19. However, the number of recorded cases only accounts for about 60% of the actual number, meaning that there are still about 40% of infected people undiscovered in the community.
Dr. Dinh Van Luong, Director of the Central Lung Hospital, spoke at the conference. Image: T. Khanh
Dr. Dinh Van Luong, Director of the Central Lung Hospital, Head of the Executive Committee of the National Tuberculosis Program, said Vietnam sets a goal of ending tuberculosis by 2035. To achieve this goal, the National Tuberculosis Program proposes universal health coverage, strengthening the role of the grassroots health system, health insurance and social protection. At the same time, expand the application of new diagnostic tools, new drugs, new vaccines, new approaches or interventions to detect and treat tuberculosis early to cut off the source of infection or the risk of infection progressing to tuberculosis.
In district health facilities and remote areas, where there is a shortage of tuberculosis specialists, the artificial intelligence system will be effective in early detection of tuberculosis in the community. Currently, the need for an artificial intelligence system to detect tuberculosis is great, but funding for installing this system is still limited.
“When Vietnam widely deploys artificial intelligence technology in early detection of tuberculosis, it will contribute to ending tuberculosis and improving people’s health,” Associate Professor Hoa said.
At the conference, in addition to the issue of pulmonary tuberculosis, international and domestic presenters also reported and discussed main topics such as lung transplantation, respiration, lung cancer and lung fungus. This is an opportunity for domestic and foreign experts to update knowledge and share experiences to provide the best treatment for patients.