Using AI to create 3D printed models to reduce a rapidly growing surgical procedure backlog caused by COVID19

Axial3D的愿景是改变NHS Trust能够完成的手术的数量和质量，因为他们开始从这场COVID危机中恢复过来，并将这一愿景应用于贝尔法斯特信托的这个项目，即迅速解决日益积压的关键手术。自COVID危机开始以来，所有NHS信托基金都不得不减少每周进行的手术数量，在许多情况下完全停止。每周，这种手术能力的减少都在继续，增加了手术团队的负担，导致复杂和危重护理手术中积压的危及生命的手术。皇家外科学院院长德里克·奥尔德森教授在2019年3月底表示：“等待开始治疗的患者的积压人数继续增加。与去年同期相比，现在等待治疗超过18周的患者增加了10万多人。迫切需要一个计划来处理日益积压的患者“。_Axial3D这个项目的重点是立即为外科医生提供一个改变游戏规则的新层次的洞察他们的患者的解剖-微毫米精确的3D打印模型。这些模型让外科医生对患者病情的确切性质有了独特的洞察，到目前为止，他们只能看到他们实际开始手术的时间。全球100多家医院的手术团队已经在使用我们的3D模型，每天都为我们提供量化的证据，证明他们对手术规划产生的改变游戏规则的影响。作为该项目的一部分，Axial3D将开发一种使用人工智能的创新解决方案，以帮助NHS在COVID危机期间和之后为患者接收更多此类模型。这种使用人工智能的独特方法，使我们能够自动为每个患者创建矫形或心脏状况的3D打印模型。我们根据患者自己的扫描结果自动创建这些模型。通过在8个月的项目中为105名患者提供模型，贝尔法斯特信托基金的矫形外科和心脏团队相信，我们可以显著减少甚至消除由于COVID_而积压的手术。我们将在这个项目中衡量在每个患者身上使用我们的模型的好处，然后与更广泛的NHS分享结果，为手术计划的方式提供根本改变的可能性。

Axial3D's vision is to transform the quantity and quality of surgeries that NHS Trusts can complete, as they start to recover from this COVID crisis, with the application of this vision for this project at the Belfast Trust, being to rapidly address the increasing backlog of critical surgeries. Since the start of the COVID crisis, all NHS Trusts have had to reduce the number of surgeries they are performing every week, in many cases stopping entirely. Every week this surgical capacity reduction continues, increases the burden on surgical teams, causing a life-threatening backlog in complex and critical care surgeries.Professor Derek Alderson, President of the Royal College of Surgeons, said at the end of March 2019: _"The backlog of patients waiting to start treatment continues to grow. There are now over 100,000 more patients waiting longer than 18 weeks to start treatment when compared with the same time last year. There is an urgent need for a plan to deal with the increasing backlog of patients"._Axial3D's focus for this project is to immediately provide surgeons with a game-changing new level of insight into their patient's anatomy - micro mm accurate 3D printed models. These models give surgeons a unique insight into the precise nature of the patient's condition that to date, they only will see when they have actually started the surgical procedure. Surgical teams in over 100 hospitals around the world already use our 3D models and every day provide us with quantified testimony as to the game-changing impact they have on planning surgeries. As part of this project Axial3D will develop an innovative solution using AI to help the NHS receive more of these models for patients during and after the COVID crisis. This unique approach of using artificial intelligence, allows us to automatically create 3D printed models of the orthopaedic or cardiac condition for each patient. We create these models automatically from the patient's own scans. By providing models for 105 patients, over the 8 month project, the orthopaedic and cardiac teams in the Belfast Trust believe we _can significantly reduce or even remove the backlog of surgeries due to COVID_. We will measure the benefits of the use of our models during this project on each patient, and then share the results with the wider NHS, offering the potential for a fundamental change to the way surgeries are planned.