I-Corps: Early risk assessment of infant head malformations at the point-of-care

I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力涉及为临床医生和护理人员提供移动和知情的决策支持，这些疾病涉及身体畸形，如头部畸形、面部畸形、耳朵畸形和/或腿部弯曲。2017年，约有23亿人拥有智能手机，平均每天在10个不同的应用程序上使用2-3个小时。在2016年最近的一项调查中，79%的母亲有兴趣尝试或学习远程医疗，以解决非紧急医疗问题，40%的拥有智能手机的母亲至少下载了一个健康或健康应用。据估计，到2015年，移动医疗应用程序mHealth的全球市场规模将达到110亿美元，比2017年增长五倍。新父母尤其参与mHealth和早期发现，在儿科人群中持续监测是最重要的。考虑到mHealth目前的增长潜力和父母的高接受度，一款移动应用程序非常适合弥合儿科保健领域的健康差距。我们的方法将使用图像分析和人工智能来实现即时决策支持、定制建议和低成本扩展我们的技术。这个i-Corps项目为PediaMetrix团队提供了调查一款新的移动健康应用程序可用性的机会，该应用程序将使父母能够使用智能手机捕捉婴儿头部的照片，并接收对他们头部形状的即时分析。我们证明，我们的基于图像的算法可以准确测量颅骨指数和颅顶不对称指数，这两个临床参数用于诊断和计划扁头综合征(FHS)的治疗。根据确定的FHS类型和严重程度，APP建议针对婴儿的治疗重新定位说明，然后定期与照顾者跟进，以确保治疗期间的依从性和进展。这款应用程序将把信息发送到婴儿的电子健康记录，供儿科医生审查。我们还在用机器学习的方法研究颅骨形状特征，以区分FHS和颅缝融合，这是另一种导致头部畸形的疾病，但通常需要手术治疗。PediaMetrix于2018年3月提交了知识产权保护申请。这一裁决反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project relates to the provision of mobile and informed decision support to clinicians and caregivers in various pediatric health conditions that involve body malformations, such as head malformation, facial abnormality, ear deformity, and/or bowed legs. About 2.3 billion people owned a smartphone in 2017, using an average of 2-3 hours on 10 different apps daily. In a recent survey in 2016, 79% of moms were interested in trying or learning about telemedicine for non-emergency medical issues and 40% of those owning smartphones had downloaded at least one health or wellness app. It is estimated that the worldwide market size for mHealth--mobile medical apps-- will reach $11 billion by 2015, a five-fold increase compared to 2017. New parents are particularly involved with mHealth and early detection and continuous monitoring is of utmost importance in the pediatric population. Given the current growth potential of mHealth and its high acceptance by parents, a mobile app is perfectly situated at bridging health gaps in pediatric care. Our approach will use image analysis and artificial intelligence to enable instantaneous decision support, customized recommendations, and low cost scaling up of our technology. This I-Corps project provides the PediaMetrix team the opportunity to investigate the usability of a new mobile health app, which will enable parents to capture photographs of their infant's head using a smartphone and receive instant analysis of their head shape. We demonstrated that our image-based algorithms accurately measure the cranial index and cranial vault asymmetry index--two clinical parameters used to diagnose and plan treatment for flat head syndrome (FHS). Based on the determined FHS type and severity, the app recommends infant-specific therapeutic re-positioning instructions and then follows up with the caregiver on a regular basis to ensure compliance and progress during therapy. The app will send the information to the infant's electronic health records to be reviewed by pediatricians. We are also investigating cranial shape features with machine learning methods to distinguish between FHS and craniosynostosis, another condition that causes head malformations, but which typically requires surgical treatment. PediaMetrix filed for protection of intellectual property March 2018.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.