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Self-Service A.I. Offered for Pathologists

Skeletal muscle image

Skeletal muscle tissue sample image from Aiforia Cloud (Fimmic)

19 March 2018. A company in Finland is beginning a service that allows pathologists and researchers the ability to design their own artificial intelligence algorithms without writing code, for analyzing visual images of tissue samples. The service, called Aiforia Create is offered by Fimmic, a spin-off enterprise from the Finnish Institute for Molecular Medicine at University of Helsinki.

Fimmic provides an online database of tissue sample images and analytical platform known as Aiforia Cloud, where pathologists can store their own images for annotation, classification, and measurement, as well as comparison with similar samples. In addition, tissue sample images can be shared with colleagues for consultations or publication in journals. The company also provides as an extra service, preparation of deep learning algorithms for specific analysis. Fimmic says more than 6,000 pathologists, researchers, and pharmaceutical R&D teams now use Aiforia Cloud.

The new Aiforia Create service, says Fimmic, enables Aiforia Cloud customers to write their own image analysis and deep learning algorithms. This do-it-yourself process, says the company, can reduce the time needed to produce an algorithm from months to a few days. The algorithms, according to Fimmic, can detect, quantify, and learn key features in tissue samples, as well as provide important context for samples from the company’s extensive database.

Fimmic expects the A.I.-driven tissue analysis service to help fill important medical needs. “An aging population and rise in cancer prevalence, coupled with the radical innovation of A.I. technology, has created both a significant need and opportunity for digital pathology to evolve,” says CEO Kaisa Helminen in a company statement. The company plans to demonstrate Aiforia Cloud and its related services at the annual meeting of USCAP — formerly United States & Canadian Academy of Pathology — now underway in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The 5 year-old company was founded by Johan Lundin and Mikael Lundin, now Fimmic’s chief scientist and concept design director, respectively. Johan Lundin is also a research director at the Finnish Institute for Molecular Medicine and a guest professor at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. The research group headed by Johan Lundin created WebMicroscope, a technology for microscopy over the web, which became the basis for Aiforia Cloud.

“Digitizing the field of pathology has been an important step forward for health care, but we’re once again poised for real disruption in the space,” adds Kaisa Helminen.

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