SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Lung cancer remains one of the leading cancer killers in the world, even with new advancements in the medical field. The most effective route to treatment remains early screening and detection, which is why Ellis Medicine is leveraging the power of artificial intelligence to help screen more patients before it’s too late.
In the Pulmonology and Critical Care wing of Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, Dr. Ahmed Khan has the latest and greatest technology when it comes to advanced therapeutics. “That doesn’t always mean it reaches people, or we are able to accurately identify who they are,” Dr. Khan explained.
Dr. Khan and his team treat patients with a wide variety of lung disorders, including lung cancer. Getting a proper diagnosis starts with a CT scan. Dr. Niraj Sinha explained, “Rather than have a human sift through large voluminous mountains of data. Machine learning tools — AI tools — can be used to do this in a much more efficient way. For me, it takes seven to 10 minutes, and I’ve come down to seven to 10 minutes after years and years of doing this.”
To help with efficiency, Ellis Medicine has become the first provider to use LungTraX System, an AI powered tool that can identify patients with COPD or emphysema and flag them for more advanced treatments. “AI is extremely good at pattern recognition,” Dr. Sinha said. “AI tools can detect very small patterns, which are possibly not detected by humans.”
Dr. Khan added, “It lets me do more patient care and less looking through paperwork, searching through data files.”
Through scanning thousands of patient images and records since launching in February, doctors at Ellis Medicine have already identified more than 75 patients previously undiagnosed, helping them better navigate their treatment options. Chelsea Centurioni, a physician assistant said, “What this AI does is helps to identify patients who may be at risk for advanced disease and helps intervene and connect them to appropriate resources so they can get care they need.”
Options such as a Zephyr valve. The tiny device is placed through a minimally invasive procedure instead of major surgery. And when it comes to cancer care, early detection is key. “We are just scraping the surface of how AI will be used,” Dr. Sinha said. “By the time you get symptoms from lung cancer, it’s too late, so you have to catch it early.”
Doctors in the department are hoping to leverage computational power to help them add more years to a person’s life.
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