AI-based self-directed distance learning for dental students

该项目的重点是大学牙科学校牙科学生的全球教育。这一领域受到当前疫情的严重影响，难以维持牙科学生教育的许多方面，预计在疫情过后和未来几年难以在功能和经济上恢复。英国有17所大学牙科学校，欧洲各地还有200所牙科学校，美国的数量更多。这些学校有超过100,000名牙科学生，他们将受益于基于人工智能的自我指导的远程学习工具，专注于牙科X光照片分析技能的提高。牙科X光照片分析是牙科诊断和治疗计划的核心。正确分析牙科X光照片是预防性牙科中的重要工具，用于检测一系列牙科疾病并在早期阶段治疗牙科患者。基于人工智能的专家提示系统在许多医疗领域具有价值，其中需要检查X光照片，例如筛查乳房X光照片、脊柱和眼科图像。牙科是另一个例子，其中基于AI的提示系统使用由牙颌面放射科医生提供的专家数据进行训练，已被证明提高了牙科学生的诊断准确率的整体标准(来自曼彻斯特大学和曼彻斯特成像大学的数据在文件中)。此外，在远程学习日益受到重视的世界里，许多当前的大学牙科学校的教学方法并不容易适合医学图像临床分析的教学。使用目前的技术，牙科学生不能很容易地记录他们对牙科X光片的临床评估，并与他们的导师一起工作，他们无法评估学生的表现改善。曼彻斯特成像有限公司的AssistDent(R)是一种早期牙病诊断工具，目前在英国和欧洲出售给牙医。他们使用它作为一个提示系统，专门用来帮助分析咬合X光片，寻找特定的早期龋齿类型。AssistDent是一个网络应用程序中提供的人工智能软件，该应用程序被批准为CE认证的医疗设备，按照ISO-13485认证标准生产。这个项目将调整和重新调整AssistDent(R)的用途，以提示更广泛的牙科疾病，以便所有大学牙科学校都可以使用它来帮助牙科学生提高他们的牙科X光照片分析能力，而不必参加牙科学校的设施。预计在六个月内，临时版本将在新功能可用时提供访问权限。大学牙科学校接受新的在线牙科学生培训工具AssistDent的效果一直很慢。随着利用影响资金扩展的能力，曼彻斯特成像公司将解决到目前为止从该项目中学到的关键问题。接受缓慢的两个关键原因是，首先，客户在承诺购买之前需要看到满意用户的案例研究，其次，客户需要更多功能，以促进将产品集成到他们当前的在线教学工作流程中，即改进报告、整理和输出结果以供评估。延长Impact Funding将使曼彻斯特成像公司能够投入时间和金钱与客户合作，开发我们正在使用的产品的案例研究。通过展示这些好处，并在更新的营销活动中使用这些案例研究，我们相信我们可以加快理解。我们将制定一个目标，与英国、斯堪的纳维亚半岛、德国、中东和美国的8所大学牙科学校合作。根据最初的项目，在3个月结束时，这8个案例研究应该会在8所大学产生销售，这些大学合作并作为营销材料，推动更广泛的全球大学牙科学校的采用。

The project focus is global education of dental studentsat university dental schools. This sector is badly impactedby the current pandemic, struggling to maintain many aspects of dental student education and anticipating difficulties recovering functionally and economically in the aftermath and future years.There are 17 university dental schools in the UK and a further 200 dental schools across Europe and a larger number in the US. In these schools are over 100,000 dental students that would benefitfrom an AI-based self-directed distance learning tool focussed on dental radiograph analysis skills improvement.Dental radiograph analysisis central to dental diagnosis and treatment planning. Used correctly analysis of the dental radiograph is an important tool in preventative dentistryto detect a range of dental diseases and treat dental patients at an early stage.Expert AI-based prompting systemsare of value in many medical fields in which inspection of radiographs is necessary e.g. screening mammography, spinal, and ophthalmic images.Dentistry is a further example where an AI-based prompting system, trained using expert data provided by dento-maxillofacial radiologists, has been shown to improve overall standards of diagnostic accuracy by dental students(data from University of Manchester and Manchester Imaging on file).Additionally in a world where distance learningis increasingly valued many current university dental school teaching methods do not readily lend themselves to the_\*_teaching of clinical analysis of medical images\*. Using current technologies, dental students cannot easily record their clinical assessment of a dental radiographs and work on this with their tutors who have no means of assessing the student's performance improvement.AssistDent(r) from Manchester Imaging Limited is an aid in the diagnosis of early dental disease, currently sold in the UK and Europe to dentists. They use it as a prompting system specifically to help when analysing bitewing radiographs looking for a particular early type of tooth decay. AssistDent is AI software available in a web application that isapproved as a CE marked medical device produced to ISO-13485 accredited standard.This project will adapt and repurpose the AssistDent(r)to prompt for a much wider range of dental diseases so that it can be used by all university dental schools to enable dental students to improve their dental radiograph analysis abilitywithout having to attend the dental school facilities. It is envisioned that within the six months interim releases will provide access to new functions as they become available.EFFECTS OF 'EXTENSION FOR IMPACT' FUNDINGUptake by university dental schools of the new online dental student training tool, AssistDent, has been slow. With the ability to utilise Extension for Impact funding Manchester Imaging will address the key learning from the project so far. The two key reasons for slow uptake are firstly that customers need to see case studies from satisfied users before committing to buy, and secondly customers require more features which facilitate the integration of the product into their current online teaching workflow i.e. improved reporting, collating and export of results for assessment.The Extension for Impact funding will allow Manchester Imaging to invest time and money in partnering with customers to develop case studies of our product in use. By showcasing the benefits, and using these case studies in a refreshed marketing campaign, we believe we can accelerate the uptake. We will set a target of partnering with 8 university dental schools across UK, Scandinavia, Germany, Middle East and the US. At completion of the 3 months the 8 case studies should result in sales in the 8 universities that partnered and serve as marketing material to drive adoption by the wider global base of university dental schools, as per the original project.