AI Now Sees and Hears COVID In Your Lungs (Medicine)

For Dr. Mary-Anne Hartley, a medical doctor and researcher in EPFL’s intelligent Global Health group (iGH), 2020 has been relentless. “It’s not a relaxing time to study infectious diseases,” she explained.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Hartley’s research team has been working non-stop with nearby Swiss university hospitals on two major projects. Using artificial intelligence (AI), they have developed new algorithms that, with data from ultrasound images and auscultation (chest/lung) sounds, can accurately diagnose the novel coronavirus in patients and predict how ill they are likely to become.

iGH is based in the Machine Learning and Optimization Laboratory of Professor Martin Jaggi, a world leading hub of AI specialists, and part of EPFL’s School of Computer and Communication Sciences. “We’ve named the new deep learning algorithms DeepChest—using lung ultrasound images—and DeepBreath—using breath sounds from a digital stethoscope. This AI is helping us to better understand complex patterns…