Made-in-India AI-based breast cancer detection tool makes waves worldwide

08th April 2023
Made-in-India AI-based breast cancer detection tool makes waves worldwide
The NIRAMAI radiation-free AI-driven thermal image based breast cancer detection system and its inventor Dr Geetha Manjunath

April 8, 2023: Can advanced technologies may replace doctors in some roles?
A New York Times article last month reported on some success  with A.I. software to spot  breast cancer in women, even  as doctors debate whether the technology will replace them in medical jobs. Hungary was said to be a major testing ground: Two radiologists had previously said an  X-ray did not show any signs that the patient had breast cancer.
But artificial intelligence software had flagged several areas of the scan as potentially cancerous. 
“Advancements in A.I. are beginning to deliver breakthroughs in breast cancer screening by detecting the signs that doctors miss”, says the article.
Made-in-India AI-based breast cancer detector
Interestingly, the use of AI assistance in the detection of breast cancer, has been pioneered and improved upon over the last seven years in India.  A Bengaluru-based startup, NIRAMAI (for Non-Invasive Risk Assessment with Machine Intelligence) co-founded by its principal inventor, Dr Geetha Manjunath has pioneered a radiation-free, automated and non-invasive breast cancer screening test. It uses   a computer aided diagnostic engine powered by Artificial Intelligence.
The solution uses a high- resolution thermal sensing device and a cloud hosted analytics solution for analysing the thermal image of the breast that and detects cancer at a much earlier stage than traditional screening methods.
NIRAMAI has won many international prestigious awards including World Bank instituted Global Women HealthTech Award 2022, and its services can be accessed in over 150 installations at hospitals and diagnostic centres across 29 Indian cities.
NIRAMAI has now received both the US FDA clearance  for their first device called SMILE-100 System which opens up world markets for this quintessential made-in-India technology. 
This is  part of a longer  World Health Day feature that has appeaed in Swarajya magazine