Qure.ai’s tech is as reliable as radiologists for COVID assessment

A clinical study evaluated Qure.ai algorithm’s ability to predict adverse clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19

Health tech firm Qure.ai’s diagnostic tool for COVID-19 has been used as part of a clinical study conducted in Milan by IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele. The study focused on the early predictors of clinical outcomes of COVID-19 and showed that the performance of Qure.ai’s chest X-ray interpretation technology, qXR, was comparable to radiologists’ assessment in predicting severity in initial chest x-rays in patients with COVID-19.

Published in European Radiology, the article stated that a high qXR chest X-ray quantitative score, based on percent of lung involvement, at admission was highly predictive of mortality due to COVID-19. This was comparable to what was obtained with the RALE score, previously validated to evaluate Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS).

IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele has been using qXR technology since early April to aid the efforts of their physicians in pandemic management. qXR is one of Qure.ai’s AI-driven and machine-powered healthcare tools. It automatically generates chest X-ray interpretation reports and is faster and more efficient than humans in detecting, tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, lung malignancies and medical emergencies and in evaluating COVID-19 X-rays.

“As reported in our study, a qXR score ≥ 30 on chest x-rays at presentation is an independent predictor of of admission to intensive care unit (ICU) or deaths occurring before ICU admission in COVID-19 patients. These important findings of our study suggest that chest Xray and Artificial Intelligence may play a pivotal role in prognostic evaluation of COVID-19 disease” stated Professor Francesco De Cobelli, Head of Clinical and Experimental Radiology at IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele.

Prashant Warier, CEO and co-founder of Qure.ai, said: “Our AI solution for chest X-rays qXR has proven to be useful in two areas in pandemic management. Firstly, to screen for individuals exhibiting signs of COVID-19 on a chest X-ray. Secondly, to monitor confirmed cases of COVID-19 to track the progression of the disease. Having deployed both these capabilities in hospitals and community screening programs across the globe, this study with Ospedale San Raffaele backs qXR’s ability to be an effective tool for predicting clinical outcomes at the first patient evaluation itself.”