Newton Fund - The Development of a Portable THERMOgraphy-based Health DeTECTion Application (THERMOTECT) in breast cancer screening in India

乳腺癌是全世界女性中最常见的癌症，2012年确诊了近170万新病例（总体上第二常见的癌症）。这占所有新发癌症病例的12%，占所有女性癌症病例的25%。据世界卫生组织称，尽管乳腺癌被认为是发达国家的一种疾病，但近50%的乳腺癌病例和58%的死亡病例发生在欠发达国家。这包括印度，在印度，每两名新诊断为乳腺癌的女性中，就有一人会死亡。这一创新项目将开发一种新型便携式热像仪健康检测应用程序，作为一种高效、侵入性更小、更方便和更安全的乳腺癌筛查工具，专门用于印度农村地区以及其他发展中国家。因此，该项目对乳腺癌的早期发现作出了直接贡献，从而对改善印度女性人口的福利作出了贡献。新的筛选系统将以连接到托管人工智能（AI）模型分类器的云服务器的便携式移动设备应用程序为基础。客户端平台由一个基于窗口的设备和一个热像仪组成，它们通过无线连接安全地连接到云。ThermoTECT旨在为农村和偏远地区的人们提供便携式乳腺癌筛查。印度的建议是让卫生保健人员将移动设备带到农村地区并进行筛查。这不仅使医疗保健更接近基层，还消除了人们反复长途跋涉到城市进行常规筛查的需要。这既能促进健康发展，又能减少这种重复旅行的碳足迹。该项目直接有助于在印度早期发现乳腺癌，从而改善印度女性人口的福利。有了一种快速的乳腺癌检测方法，人们就不会那么害怕去看医生了。在印度文化中，女性成为家庭的基石和孩子的主要照顾者并不罕见。妇女死亡率较高与儿童（未来的经济领袖）没有充分发挥潜力、最终陷入福利和贫困、犯罪率较高和家庭分裂有直接关系。因此，印度妇女乳腺癌死亡率的降低将导致印度贫困的减少。

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide, with nearly 1.7 million new cases diagnosed in 2012 (second most common cancer overall). This represents about 12% of all new cancer cases and 25% of all cancers in women. According to the World Health Organisation, although breast cancer is thought to be a disease of the developed world, almost 50% of breast cancer cases and 58% of deaths occur in less developed countries. This includes India, where for every two women newly diagnosed with breast cancer in India, one of them will die. This innovative project will develop a novel, portable thermography–based health detection application for use as a highly efficient, less invasive, more convenient and safer breast cancer screening tool, specifically for use in rural parts of India as well as other developing countries. Hence the project makes a direct contribution to early detection of breast cancer and, therefore, towards the improvement of the welfare of India’s female population.The new screening system will be based on a portable mobile device application that is connected to a cloud server that will host an artificial intelligent (AI) model classifier. The client platform consists of a windows-based device and a thermographic camera, which is securely linked via a wireless connection to the cloud. ThermoTECT aims to bring portable breast cancer screening to people in rural and remote areas. The proposal for India is for healthcare personnel to take the mobile device to rural areas and perform screening. Not only does this bring health care closer to the grassroots, it eliminates the need for people to make repeated long journeys to urban cities for routine screening. This allows for health development while reducing the carbon footprint of such repeated journeys.This project makes a direct contribution to early detection of breast cancer in India and therefore the improvement of the welfare of India’s female population. With a quick breast cancer detection method, people will be less deterred to attend a consultation. In Indian culture, it is not uncommon for women to be cornerstones of families and primary care providers for children. A higher death rate for women has a direct relationship with children (future economic leaders) not reaching full potential, ending up in welfare and poverty, higher crime rate and divided families. Therefore, a reduction in death rate from breast cancer for Indian women would lead to a reduction in poverty for India.