Barcelona, October 5, 2021 - The Hospital Clinic of Barcelona (HCB), recognized as the best hospital in Spain and ranked 21st in the world, and the Fundació Clínic per a la Recerca Biomèdica, have signed a strategic research and development agreement with Enzyme Advising Group aimed at developing artificial intelligence algorithms to accelerate the diagnosis of lung diseases.
The initial project will focus on improving, through the use of artificial intelligence and computer vision, the diagnosis of a chronic disease that affects both lungs in a diffuse manner and is characterized by progressive scarring that causes the lung to lose flexibility and deteriorate in function over time.
Patients with this disease have a high mortality rate and the treatments available to address it delay, but do not reverse, the pathology. Therefore, the use of artificial intelligence and new diagnostic techniques makes it possible to detect early changes in lung tissue before the disease progresses and to apply treatment as soon as possible, improving patients' quality of life.
The development of Artificial Intelligence algorithms will be carried out by articulating a joint process of innovation and co-creation between medical teams, data scientists and artificial intelligence engineers, where expert knowledge will be collected through tools developed by Enzyme.
AI-based technologies
The project will be carried out using two SaaS platforms developed within the framework of Enzyme Technologies. On the one hand, the Smart Vision Platform (platform for the development, management and consumption of artificial vision solutions), will automate manual sorting processes based on visual inspection and will allow finding patterns not detected by specialists.
On the other hand, KomOmbo, Enzyme's platform that functions as a marketplace for data and knowledge sharing, adds a Federated Learning layer ensuring privacy and allowing the exploitation of the true value of the data, will be used to create the collaborative training infrastructure in future extensions of this project.
Through the expert analysis of images and information from the HCB case bank, and the use of Enzyme's Computer Vision and KomOmbo integrated solutions, support will be provided to the medical teams to improve the response time in the diagnostic process.
Antonio Martinez, Head of the Anatomic Pathology Service of the Biomedical Diagnostic Center of Hospital Clinic, states "We found Enzyme Advising Group's proposal to be innovative and very much in line with the objectives of Hospital Clínic of Barcelona. It is a project that is highly replicable to other pathologies that can mean a before and after in the diagnosis of diseases, both common and rare diseases. In this way, from Hospital Clinic, we take another step forward as a reference in the field of Computational Pathology through revolutionary technology and a reliable partner".
In this project, guaranteeing the security of patient data is a strategic priority, and is therefore ensured in two ways. On the one hand, the algorithm is developed using anonymous surplus samples from HCB and, additionally, each component of the solution is designed to ensure the confidentiality of data processing.
Alvaro OrtIn, CEO of Enzyme Advising Group, explains "at Enzyme we have always been committed to AI, which we can now also apply to the healthcare sector. For this reason, the agreement reached is an important step and we are delighted to be able to collaborate with HCB in this innovative initiative and to be able to contribute our knowledge in AI to accelerate the diagnosis of these and other diseases, thus improving the quality of life of patients."
A project financed with CDTI funds
Komombo's Market Place project is funded by the Center for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) and co-financed by Feder and CDT funds.
A project of international scope, it is being developed by a multidisciplinary work team distributed between Barcelona and the whole national territory. It also has the support of a team of experts in the health sector, the Medical Sounding Board of Komombo, who advise thanks to their knowledge and experience the proper development of the platform. The project, which focuses on improving, through the use of artificial intelligence and computer vision, the diagnosis of chronic lung diseases but applicable to any other pathology, has an initial budget of XXXXX € and a development period of XXXX years. It is expected that by mid-2022 a prototype will be available for the first clinical trials.
About Hospital Clínic de Barcelona
Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, with more than 100 years of history, is a public health center of reference in the city of Barcelona, in Catalonia and in the world, with a clear will of excellence in its three main areas of action: assistance, research and teaching.
About the Fundació Clínic per a la Recerca Biomèdica
The Fundació Clínic per a la Recerca Biomèdica is a non-profit institution that was created in May 1989. Its objectives are to promote, manage and carry out research in biomedicine and teaching related to health sciences, especially within the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona and in all areas where the Hospital is active, either on its own or in collaboration with other entities.
About Enzyme Advising Group
With more than 10 years of experience, Enzyme is an AI services and product company dedicated to the research, development, implementation and integration of technology solutions mainly based on data management, artificial intelligence and blockchain. Winner of several international awards for projects carried out in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision, Enzyme currently has a team of more than 100 people distributed in its offices in Madrid and Barcelona, and customers in more than 15 countries. Since 2017, Pyrénées Andorra Group, the main brand of the Andorran principality, is a reference partner of Enzyme.
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