Keynote
Title: Medical Imaging Analytics, Informatics and Machine Learning in a Global Health Application
Abstract: Global health challenges arise from various shortages: lack of solutions in biomedicine, adverse social situations, lack of resources, and lack of expertise. While not all of these can be addressed by a data and informatics organization, such as the U.S. National Library of Medicine, it can address a critical need in this area – enabling access to high quality information to aid in diagnostics at the point of care. This can be achieved by extending its in-house research in biomedical image analytics, medical informatics, and machine learning, and adapting it to where it can be most useful. Diagnostics and screening applications utilize the same image analysis content understanding techniques used in multimodal information retrieval, except they need to be enhanced for use in a field-based system, made compatible with existing medical device communications and informatics standards, and made resilient for use in resource constrained regions. In this talk, I will describe the progress and challenges faced on a global health project for automated image analysis of chest x-ray images for use in screening for tuberculosis in a HIV prone rural region in sub-Saharan Africa. I will also describe challenges faced in extending the technology to other TB endemic regions and our ongoing efforts to improve its performance. The project demonstrates how a multidisciplinary approach through synergistic efforts of computational imaging scientists, radiologists, and engineers can be channeled to address a long standing global health challenge.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Sameer Antani is a versatile researcher and holds the position of Staff Scientist at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He leads and directs several scientific and technical research projects toward advancing the role of computational sciences in biomedical research, education, and clinical care. He applies his expertise in machine learning, biomedical image informatics, brain fMRI informatics, automatic medical image interpretation, multi-modal information retrieval, computer vision, and related topics in computer science and engineering technology. Dr. Antani is a Senior Member of the International Society of Photonics and Optics (SPIE) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and serves as Vice Chair for IEEE Technical Committee on Computational Life Sciences, and is a leading member of the IEEE Life Sciences Community. He is an Associate Editor for IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics. In addition to several staff achievement awards, he has been honored with two NIH merit awards (2009, 2013) for contributions in geography-independent cancer research tools, and advancing biomedical information retrieval, and an NIH Director’s Award in 2016 for his contributions to the science and engineering of a novel TB screening system for under-resourced regions, respectively. Dr. Antani earned his Ph.D. and M.Eng. from the Pennsylvania State University, USA, and his B.Eng. (with Distinction) from the University of Pune, India.
Abstract: Global health challenges arise from various shortages: lack of solutions in biomedicine, adverse social situations, lack of resources, and lack of expertise. While not all of these can be addressed by a data and informatics organization, such as the U.S. National Library of Medicine, it can address a critical need in this area – enabling access to high quality information to aid in diagnostics at the point of care. This can be achieved by extending its in-house research in biomedical image analytics, medical informatics, and machine learning, and adapting it to where it can be most useful. Diagnostics and screening applications utilize the same image analysis content understanding techniques used in multimodal information retrieval, except they need to be enhanced for use in a field-based system, made compatible with existing medical device communications and informatics standards, and made resilient for use in resource constrained regions. In this talk, I will describe the progress and challenges faced on a global health project for automated image analysis of chest x-ray images for use in screening for tuberculosis in a HIV prone rural region in sub-Saharan Africa. I will also describe challenges faced in extending the technology to other TB endemic regions and our ongoing efforts to improve its performance. The project demonstrates how a multidisciplinary approach through synergistic efforts of computational imaging scientists, radiologists, and engineers can be channeled to address a long standing global health challenge.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Sameer Antani is a versatile researcher and holds the position of Staff Scientist at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He leads and directs several scientific and technical research projects toward advancing the role of computational sciences in biomedical research, education, and clinical care. He applies his expertise in machine learning, biomedical image informatics, brain fMRI informatics, automatic medical image interpretation, multi-modal information retrieval, computer vision, and related topics in computer science and engineering technology. Dr. Antani is a Senior Member of the International Society of Photonics and Optics (SPIE) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and serves as Vice Chair for IEEE Technical Committee on Computational Life Sciences, and is a leading member of the IEEE Life Sciences Community. He is an Associate Editor for IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics. In addition to several staff achievement awards, he has been honored with two NIH merit awards (2009, 2013) for contributions in geography-independent cancer research tools, and advancing biomedical information retrieval, and an NIH Director’s Award in 2016 for his contributions to the science and engineering of a novel TB screening system for under-resourced regions, respectively. Dr. Antani earned his Ph.D. and M.Eng. from the Pennsylvania State University, USA, and his B.Eng. (with Distinction) from the University of Pune, India.