{"id":45080,"date":"2025-02-17T16:37:31","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T09:37:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oucru.org\/?p=45080"},"modified":"2025-03-11T12:06:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T05:06:17","slug":"ai-pneumonia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.oucru.org\/index.php\/2025\/02\/17\/ai-pneumonia\/","title":{"rendered":"OUCRU Researchers Develop AI-Powered Tools to Improve Pneumonia Care\u00c2\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While pneumonia poses a significant global health challenge, its burden falls disproportionately on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where it is the leading cause of hospital and intensive care admissions. Paradoxically, the majority of pneumonia research originates from high-income countries, creating a critical knowledge gap that hinders effective diagnosis and treatment in the very places where it&#8217;s most needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Building on over eight years of innovative research, OUCRU, in partnership with <a href=\"https:\/\/ibme.ox.ac.uk\/\">The Institute of Biomedical Engineering<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/eng.ox.ac.uk\/chi\/\">Computational Health Informatics<\/a> (CHI) Lab, University of Oxford and the <a href=\"http:\/\/bvbnd.vn\">Hospital for Tropical Diseases<\/a> (Ho Chi Minh City) aims to develop novel artificial intelligence (AI) tools for the treatment of severe pneumonia. This project will combine cutting-edge AI, advanced pathogen identification techniques, and immune profiling to improve care for critically ill patients while advancing the scientific understanding of pneumonia in LMICs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How AI wearable tech is transforming critical care in low-resource settings (Full)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/errFEZOy2cc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>The innovations team at OUCRU recently started testing the feasibility of wearable devices linked to AI models to predict outcomes in patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Principal Investigator <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oucru.org\/people\/louise-thwaites\/\" data-type=\"people\" data-id=\"17072\">Associate Professor Louise Thwaites <\/a>expressed enthusiasm for the project, stating: &#8220;We believe this research has the potential to significantly impact a critical public health issue \u00e2\u20ac\u201c pneumonia in resource-limited settings. Importantly, the methods we&#8217;re developing can be adapted to address other diseases as well.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Addressing Critical Challenges in LMICs&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In LMICs, clinicians face significant challenges around treating pneumonia. The situation is exacerbated by the limited availability of validated risk scores and a lack of understanding of underlying disease mechanisms. The new project aims to address these gaps by:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Developing AI-driven tools to analyze complex clinical data, imaging, and physiological information.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Identifying key features associated with severe pneumonia.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Advancing understanding of immune and inflammatory responses in pneumonia to inform future diagnostic and treatment strategies.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This project builds upon the success of the <a href=\"https:\/\/vital.oucru.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Vietnam ICU Translational Applications Laboratory (VITAL) project<\/a>, which was supported by a Wellcome Innovations Flagship grant from 2019 to 2023. VITAL has been instrumental in using innovative, low-cost tools to improve the care of critically ill patients in Vietnam. By leveraging the software, technologies, and expertise developed during VITAL, this new project is well-positioned to make significant advancements in pneumonia care.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The multi-disciplinary team combines expertise in clinical research, AI, immune and inflammatory phenotyping, diagnostics, and wearable technologies. Furthermore, the long-standing partnerships between OUCRU, the <a href=\"https:\/\/bvbnd.vn\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hospital for Tropical Diseases<\/a> (Ho Chi Minh City), and the <a href=\"https:\/\/ox.ac.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">University of Oxford<\/a>, will ensure that the research is grounded in the realities of LMIC healthcare systems as well as build capacity for local researchers and clinicians.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This project aligns with OUCRU\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s broader mission to develop and implement new tools and technologies to combat infectious diseases. It also supports Ho Chi Minh City\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s emergence as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oucru.org\/hcmc-health-innovation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">healthtech hub<\/a> for the Southeast Asian region. This new project will play a critical role in advancing these initiatives, ensuring Vietnam remains at the forefront of AI-driven healthcare innovation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Wellcome Discovery Award provides a unique opportunity for OUCRU to strengthen its expertise in applying AI to clinical research and address some of the most pressing healthcare challenges in LMICs. By combining cutting-edge technology with a deep understanding of local healthcare systems, the project aims to improve outcomes for critically ill patients and pave the way for future diagnostic and therapeutic breakthroughs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A team of researchers at OUCRU was recently awarded a multi-million-dollar Discovery Award from the Wellcome Trust to develop AI tools to advance pneumonia research. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":45081,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,144],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-ho-chi-minh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.oucru.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.oucru.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.oucru.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.oucru.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.oucru.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45080"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/test.oucru.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45116,"href":"https:\/\/test.oucru.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45080\/revisions\/45116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.oucru.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.oucru.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.oucru.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.oucru.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}