Ultrasound Biometry Of The Fetus, Saggital Section, Fetus In Utero In The Third Month, Measured By ... [+]
According to a Research and Markets study, the global fetal monitoring market is projected to reach $5.2 billion by 2027. In 2022, UNC-Chapel Hill received a $17 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to continue work in artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled obstetric ultrasound.
Data from World Health Organization shows that 300,000 women and three million babies die each year during childbirth or post-childbirth due to several factors, including underperforming health systems, environmental and structural factors, underlying infectious disease burden and nutritional factors.
In December 2022, French AI-based software company Sonio received €10 million from the European Innovation Council (EIC) accelerator. To date the company has raised €15 million. Sonio offers stand-alone AI SaaS software that works with any ultrasound machine device to increase prenatal ultrasounds' accuracy.
According to a press release, the technology can identify more than 300 potential prenatal syndromes and anomalies with an accuracy rate of 95% and higher. The company has a CE mark in Europe since 2021 and has filed for US FDA clearance.
Sonio's AI is designed to give a high clinical value for interpreting results and allow for quick integration of scientific progress.
Cecile Brosset, CEO and Co-Founder of Sonio says that traditionally, there's a margin of human error associated with prenatal testing and ultrasounds which are then passed onto the clinician for interpretation.
"When not relying on AI, practitioners face many challenges," said Brosset. "During a screening exam, the practitioner must, within a limited time frame, take 30 to 50 images; interpret each image in real time and quickly decide what the next best action is during the exam, perform technical gestures with precision, detect anomalies in the fetus and attempt to make a diagnosis or rule out a syndrome."
"This is actually more information than a brain can process in real-time," added Brosset.
Brosset says any of these processes can cause challenges, such as detecting anomalies and diagnosis. "Some anomalies practitioners encounter on a regular basis, others they will never witness throughout the entirety of their career, said Brosset. "To make things even more complex, very often, a fetus affected by a syndrome will not show all the anomalies described in research and will show signs which have not been described in the research."
"By using AI technology, practitioners can call upon all clinical knowledge available in real-time," said Brosset. "Combined with the physician's expertise, the use of AI enables practitioners to perform the best examination possible, with consistency, ensure quality standards are met for each exam while increasing efficiency and detect anomalies automatically without the possibility of human error."
Brosset believes that AI in fetal ultrasounds can be a quality control tool, helping healthcare professionals ensure all images meet quality standards.
"In the near future, it will help identify potential anomalies and also increase efficiency by relieving the health care provider from repetitive and low-value-added tasks.
Brosset believes that Sonio changes some critical factors for patients.
"An increasing number of diseases are treatable, either before or right after birth, and we hope that by uncovering malformations more systematically and improving diagnosis capabilities, patients will receive better treatment," said Brosset. "We also help to reduce medical wandering, as we believe that getting accurate and precise information as soon as possible is essential for the psychological well-being of the parents."
Brosset says that eliminating low-value tasks from healthcare providers will give them more time to care for patients.
