Global leaders at Orlando Health Digestive Health Institute Center for Advanced Endoscopy, Research and Education (CARE) are conducting preliminary assessments to validate the world’s first artificial intelligence integrated endoscopic ultrasound (AI-EUS) program.
This novel software system incorporates AI algorithms derived from large data sets into a convolutional neural network to detect very small lesions in the pancreas. Physicians at CARE’s high-volume, Central Florida facility worked in collaboration with partners led by Professor Adrian Saftoiu in Bucharest, Romania. Together, the team pioneered the unique algorithms, software development and data collection necessary to create the most advanced network for real-time diagnosis of high-risk pancreatic conditions.
“Our objective is straightforward — superior endosonographic examinations to better screen and detect early-stage pancreatic cancer so that more curative surgeries can be performed for improved patient survival,” says Shyam S. Varadarajulu, MD, president of Orlando Health Digestive Health Institute.
In the past two decades, overall incidence of pancreatic cancer has increased by 1 percent annually with 64,050 new cases and more than 50,000 deaths in 2023. Although the five-year survival ranges from 27% to 45% for early-stage pancreatic cancers, most patients are diagnosed later in their disease when survival is less than 10%. Through the program’s robust AI-EUS diagnostic modalities, challenging pathologies, points of abnormality and small cancers in the pancreas could possibly be identified before any other symptoms present.
Patients with a strong family history or genetic predisposition for pancreatic cancer, prior nondiagnostic cross-sectional imaging, or EUS examinations with a high clinical suspicion for pancreatic cancer are ideal candidates for the AI-EUS program. “It is our expectation that this groundbreaking approach will be routinely integrated into clinical practice in the future,” says Dr. Varadarajulu. “We propose including other tertiary care academic centers in the United States so that the technology can be refined to become even more robust.”
A referral center of excellence, Orlando Health Digestive Health Institute provides comprehensive and coordinated care for a multitude of digestive diseases as well as leading-edge clinical trials unavailable elsewhere and world-class education. The institute’s globally respected specialists are frequent contributors to leading international publications on gastroenterology and endoscopy.
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