The UltraON project aims at supporting clinicians for continuous monitoring and early diagnosis of lung diseases, including COVID-19, by means of advanced algorithms processing Lung Ultrasound and multi-modal Bio-signal data, providing an alternative to Chest X Ray or Computed Tomography (CT).
Over 6 million people die each year from pulmonary disease (COPD, lower respiratory infections, COVID-19). A solution such as UltraONcan potentially lead to a reduction of the number of deaths thanks to the possibility of making early diagnosis at low cost and more frequently without having side effects on patients as it could be with the use of imaging modalities based on ionising radiations. Furthermore, given the portability, applications also outside the hospital can be foreseen, such as remote patients monitoring.
The UltraON MVP is a set of novel algorithms (also AI based) which focus on the analysis and classification of lung ultrasound data obtained with clinical scanners (also including advanced wireless systems). The algorithms will be embedded in a web-application allowing ease of use and portability. The end result will allow clinicians to directly upload their data, and obtain real time evaluation of the severity of the lung condition (also in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic) and hopefully diagnosis of different lung diseases. We can already count on the largest lung ultrasound data base available worldwide on patients affected by COVID-19 (ICLUS-DB). This database counts already more than 3000 LUS data, and is expanding daily.
The project was born at the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering at University of Trento, is financially supported by EIT Digital and aims to set up an Innovative Startup that, in addition to continuing to develop and improve algorithms, creates a business around them.
In all this, Management Innovation is partner of the project, together with the R&D department of Onera Health, Inc.
During the last months of 2020 and throughout 2021 we will be supporting the project, creating a Business Model & Plan, until the new Startup.
Already today there are several interesting contacts with major system manufacturers.
