The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H, has unveiled a new platform aimed at enhancing medical imaging by leveraging artificial intelligence tools and technology.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services agency said Monday it is seeking proposals for the ImagiNg Data EXchange, or INDEX, program. The objective of the funding opportunity is to develop the exchange platform and foster connection between medical imaging data providers, users and services. This is expected to boost the development of AI-enhanced tools for radiology, pathology and surgical imaging.
What Is the ImagiNg Data EXchange?
The INDEX program is an initiative meant to address the gaps in the development of medical AI tools, particularly the lack of high-quality medical imaging data. Medical imaging is essential for diagnosis and treatment but there is a lack of trained professionals, particularly radiologists and pathologists, that can interpret imaging exams. The use of AI and machine learning can potentially address this issue.
Through the INDEX platform, medical software developers can access large volumes of imaging data for training, testing and validating AI/ML applications. Developers can leverage digital pathology, surgical videos, radiological scans and other medical imaging data to enhance these applications.
Should the initiative succeed, healthcare providers will be able to process more medical images faster and provide more accurate diagnoses.
ARPA-H Director Renee Wegrzyn, remarked, “For AI-enabled medical diagnostic tools to become commonplace in medical settings, we must work to enable consistent performance, which requires large volumes of diverse and representative data for training, testing and validation.”
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