AI tool developed to detect COVID-19 in lung ultrasound images

The team said that the findings will boost AI-driven medical diagnostics and allow healthcare professionals to quickly and accurately diagnose patients with COVID-19 and other pulmonary diseases because algorithm can ‘comb through’ lung ultrasound images to identify signs of disease.

The findings culminate an effort that started early in the pandemic when clinicians needed tools to rapidly assess legions of patients in overwhelmed emergency rooms.

In a statement, senior author Muyinatu Bell, the John C. Malone Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Computer Science at JHU, said: “We developed this automated detection tool to help doctors in emergency settings with high caseloads of patients who need to be diagnosed quickly and accurately, such as in the earlier stages of the pandemic.

“Potentially, we want to have wireless devices that patients can use at home to monitor progression of COVID-19, too.”

The tool also holds potential for developing wearables that track such illnesses as congestive heart failure, which can lead to fluid overload in patients’ lungs, not unlike COVID-19, said co-author Tiffany Fong, an Assistant Professor of emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine.