A Seattle-based scientist has received a quarter of a million dollars to streamline MR imaging and analysis, the American Heart Association announced Jan. 29.
Chun Yuan, PhD, a professor of radiology and bioengineering at the University of Washington, won the money through a research competition co-sponsored by the American Heart Association’s Precision Medicine Platform and Amazon Web Services (AWS). According to a statement from the AHA, the collaboration focused on using AI and machine learning to improve our understanding of data related to precision medicine.
Yuan and his colleagues used AWS service credits and the Precision Medicine Platform’s integrated data analytics workspace to leverage cloud computing and reduce the time it takes to read an MRI from 4 hours to just 7 minutes. The team’s program draws on deep learning to identify artery locations, delineate vessel wall contours, quantify vascular features and identify arteries with potential diseases. The AI eliminates the need for human intervention in MR interpretation.
According to the AHA, Yuan will receive $200,000 over two years from the AHA’s Institute for Precision Cardiovascular Medicine in addition to $50,000 in AWS service credits for use on the Precision Medicine Platform for computational time. He’ll also receive $10,000 in prize money.
“The especially exciting thing about this research is that we are able to use our technology to detect diseased blood vessels in knee images that were not acquired with that in mind, as well as using artificial intelligence to greatly shorten the time it takes to review these images,” Yuan said in a statement.
To date, the AHA’s Institute for Precision Cardiovascular Medicine has awarded 93 grants totaling $30.2 million, plus $2 million in AWS computational cloud credits.
After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.