Author Archives: BGT
Screening at the Frontlines: The Global Rise of AI-Powered Mobile and Biomarker Diagnostics for Leprosy
How Smart Questionnaires and the WHO Skin App are Taking AI into Endemic Communities In the global fight against leprosy, early case detection is the only definitive way to interrupt transmission. Historically, this required in-person clinical exams conducted by rare … Continue reading
Revolutionising the Clinic: How AI is Transforming Leprosy Management and Overcoming Diagnostic Hurdles
Published Research Highlights 2024 Paradigm Shifts in Clinical Care Leprosy (Hansen’s disease) remains a persistent global public health challenge, with the World Health Organization (WHO) tracking more than 170,000 new cases annually. A major roadblock to total eradication is diagnostic … Continue reading
What is AI for Health
About Microsoft AI for Health AI for Health is a $60 million, five-year philanthropic program from Microsoft, created to empower nonprofits, researchers, and organizations tackling some of the toughest challenges in global health. About Microsoft AI for Health AI is … Continue reading
AI Analysis of Images for Early Leprosy Detection.
The AI4Leprosy initiative, a partnership involving the Novartis Foundation, Fiocruz, and Microsoft AI for Health, is utilising machine learning to analyse skin lesion photos for early leprosy detection. A study published in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas reported that … Continue reading
Pixels Against a Persistent Plaque
How AI is Front-lining the Battle to End Leprosy. The global mission to eradicate leprosy has found an unexpected frontline weapon: the smartphone camera. Long restricted by a critical shortage of specialised medical personnel in remote, high-risk regions, healthcare systems … Continue reading
What is AI4Leprosy?
The AI4Leprosy diagnostic tool was officially launched in February 2022. It was developed through a collaborative partnership between the Novartis Foundation, Microsoft’s AI for Health team, and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz). To achieve this, the project collected skin lesion … Continue reading
Global leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) strategy 2021–2030
The World Health Organization has published the benchmark Global Leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) Strategy 2021–2030: Towards Zero Leprosy, in which he global health community has committed to aggressive milestones. The strategy mandates a 70% reduction in the annual number of new … Continue reading
Leprosy microbes lead scientists to immune discovery
Thanks to the opportunity that human leprosy infections provide for study of human immune responses, scientists have discovered how the body’s early warning system prompts a rapid immune response by two separate armies of defensive cells. The researchers isolated immune … Continue reading
Delhi Has A Change of Heart for Sister Jean
A few days ago newspapers and websites were reporting that London-born Jacqueline Jean McEwan, a Catholic nun from Britain who has spent 29 years caring for leprosy patients in Bengaluru, India, is being forced to give up her work and … Continue reading
Awareness of Hansen’s Disease in the United States
To some people, it might at first appear that leprosy or Hansen’s disease as it is properly known, is a disease of the third world, or of poverty torn countries, or confined to India. However, compiled statistics reveal that although … Continue reading