Enhancing Assisted Reproductive Technologies with Deep Learning and Data Visualization

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PROJECT SUMMARY Assisted Reproduction Technology (ART) is a clinical treatment for infertile couples who want to achieve a pregnancy. In ART, embryologists fertilize eggs retrieved from the patient or a donor, culture the resulting embryos in vitro, and then transfer the selected embryo(s) to the mother's uterus. While ART is responsible for 1.9% of babies born in the United States as of 2018, selecting which embryo to transfer is a significant challenge. The difficulty comes from the complexity of confounding factors and the lack of understanding of human pre-implantation embryo development. Because of this difficulty, multiple embryos are often transferred to increases the potential of success, resulting in multiple pregnancy rates of nearly 20%, which can lead to significant morbidity and medical expenses to patients. The ideal is to transfer only a single embryo, but this necessitates the ability to select the best embryo from a cohort. Here, we propose to create a clinical decision support system to improve embryo selection in ART. To this end, we will develop novel deep learning models for robust embryo feature extraction and interactive data visualization methods for human-in-the-loop analysis. We will first extract and analyze visual features from routinely collected images of embryos. We will then combine these visual features with patients' electronic health record (EHR) data to develop interpretable computation models that score embryos on their viability. We plan to integrate our machine learning solutions into an easily accessible cloud service platform that will be adaptable across clinics to improve ART embryo selection and clinical data analysis. Our research goals will be achieved by novel machine learning-based models for morphological feature extrac- tion and importance estimation of each confounding factor and a clinical decision support system for ART. For morphological feature extraction, we plan to conduct semi-supervised learning of convolutional neural networks to minimize manual labeling that requires extensive human effort. Our feature extraction model will be the first comprehensive classification and segmentation method for ART. To aid in embryo selection, we will develop novel deep learning-based models to predict probabilities of achieving pregnancy by accepting visual features and EHR data as the input. We will also develop visual analytic tools that allow analysts to better understand and steer these deep learning models. We will estimate the importance of each input interpretable factor in embryo selection to explain the prediction to embryologists. Finally, we will develop EmbryoProfiler, a clinical decision support system for ART, that combines our machine learning-based models with a user-facing suite of visual analytic tools to support user guidance and clinical decision making. EmbryoProfiler will help facilitate daily operation in clinics, foster human-guided decision making, enrich data-driven embryo analysis, and enhance the ability to select the developmentally most competent embryo for transfer to improve ART success rates. Our project will create state-of-the-art analysis approaches for ART clinicians.