OPENING CAIM

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Virtual Opening Event of the Center for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine: German Opening ceremony with panel discussion followed by an English Scientific Symposium.

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Workshop: Tissue Microarray Novel Applications

Virtual Workshop
14.00 - 18.00 h
Free On-Line Registration

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Digitising clinical data: Where does Switzerland stand?

AI has demonstrated that it can surpass human capabilities in biotechnology and imaging. The idea of non-human intelligence getting the better of humans may seem scary, but the truth is that physicians and scientists increasingly see it as a valuable ally in their daily work.

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Brainweek: Gender & Brain

Digital event in German
15-18 March 2021
Featuring presentations on learning behavior of women and men, brain diseases, space exploration by female researchers, and life after stroke.

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Deep learning reads tissue microarrays of colorectal cancer

Tissue microarray (TMA) core images are a treasure trove for AI applications. But a common problem with TMAs is multiple sectioning of the TMA block, which can change the content of the core and requires re-labelling of each spot image. The Institute of Pathology of the University of Bern has investigated different ensemble methods for colorectal tissue classification using high-throughput TMAs.

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Fabian Balsiger receives best GCB Thesis Award

Fabian Balsiger investigates methods for quantitative MRI of neuromuscular diseases based on medical image computing and machine learning under the supervision of Mauricio Reyes, ARTORG MIA group. The PhD student at the Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences (GCB) was presented with the Best Thesis Award 2020 at the GCB Symposium on 28 January 2021.

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A NEAT reduction of complex neuronal models

Unlike their simple counterparts in AI applications, neurons in the brain use dendrites – intricate tree-like branches – to find relevant chunks of information. Now, neuroscientists from the University of Bern have discovered a new computational method to make complex dendrite models much simpler. This could enable AI applications to process information much like the brain does.

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AI for quality assurance in radiation therapy planning: Project funded

The Medical Image Analysis group at the ARTORG Center, University of Bern, received funding support from the Swiss Cancer League to work on AI technologies for quality assurance in Radiation Therapy planning, in partnership with the Radiation Oncology Departments of the USZ and the Inselspital.

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Thomas Sauter receives endowed professorship in emergency telemedicine

Thomas Sauter, Head of Education, eHealth and Emergency Telemedicine at Bern University Hospital's emergency center has been appointed by the University Executive Board for an endowed professorship in emergency telemedicine. The assistant professorship was established thanks to the support of the Touring Club Switzerland (TCS). It deals with "eHealth" in the field of emergency medicine and is one of the very few of its kind in the world.

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Sinergia project on trans-omics against colorectal cancer to start

The University of Bern Institute of Pathology has won a Swiss Science Foundation Sinergia grant to develop an integrative computational and clinical perspective on colorectal cancer, an important cause of cancer-related mortality in Switzerland. In collaboration with the ZHAW, the Institute of System Biology, ETH Zürich and IBM Research, the group will improve patient stratification, prognosis and treatment prediction via an AI-driven multi-modal classifier trained to predict molecular classification and identify other important clinical variables.

Prix Retina for Thomas Kurmann

Thomas Kurmann, PhD student at the Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging lab of the ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research, has been awarded the Prix Retina 2020 for his research on "Expert-level Automated Biomarker Identification in Optical Coherence Tomography Scans". Together with doctors from the Inselspital Department of Ophthalmology he had developed and tested a machine learning method capable of consistently identifying a wide range of common retinal biomarkers from OCT scans.

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Smartphone verifies compliance with Mediterranean diet

The ARTORG Artificial Intelligence in Health and Nutrition lab, the Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute of the University of Zurich and Oviva SA have together developed a smartphone application to automatically estimate whether a person adheres to a health-promoting Mediterranean diet. First results of the novel system are promising.

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SDiPath 2021

Annual General Assembly Swiss Digital Pathology

PhD thesis defense Ya Lu

Congratulations to Ya Lu, Artificial Intelligence in Health and Nutrition lab, for successfully defending her PhD thesis “Dietary assessment based on computer vision and machine learning“ on 15 December 2020! For her project, she and the team designed and developed several high-performance and user- friendly dietary assessment approaches based on advanced computer vision and machine learning algorithms, enabling automatic estimation of calories and macronutrients for targeting meals in distinct application scenarios.

More about AI-based dietary monitoring…

MADiMa 2020

6th International Workshop on Multimedia Assisted Dietary Management
(Virtual Conference)

AI X-ray analysis detects Covid-19 more reliably

A team of researchers at Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, and the ARTORG Center for Biomedical Research at the University of Bern has developed a new chest radiography image analysis for the detection of COVID-19. The researchers compared this artificial intelligence (AI) with standard, diagnostic annotation by radiologists. Especially for distinguishing COVID-19 from non-COVID-19 lung disease, AI provided significantly more reliable results.

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RetinAI to collaborate with Novartis

The Bern-based AI startup RetinAI Medical AG has announced a multi-year collaboration with Novartis Pharma AG employing its IT solutions and artificial intelligence tools to support multiple projects in ophthalmology and digital health. The first project will be a multi-center international clinical study to assess disease activity in more than 500 patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). RetinAI is a spinoff of the Bern University ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research.

RetinAI press release ...

PhD thesis Alain Jungo

The ARTORG Center congratulates Alain Jungo for his successful PhD thesis defense on 3 December 2020 under the title “Applications and Insights of Uncertainty Estimates in Automated Brain Tumor Segmentation“. The member of the Medical Imaging Analysis (MIA) lab has investigated whether uncertainty estimations can improve the robustness of deep learning algorithms used for brain tumor characterizations before and after treatment.

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AI and the world’s fastest whole-body PET/CT scanner

Recently, the world’s fastest whole-body PET/CT scanner was installed at the Inselspital, Bern University Hospital. The scanner renders 4D images for a 106 cms field of view in just a few seconds, opening up new dimensions in research, diagnostics and therapy management. Kuangyu Shi, member of the Bern Center for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (CAIM) and Head of Lab for AI and Translational Theranostics at the Department of Nuclear Medicine at Inselspital, explains how AI can help alleviate the challenges the new technology poses...

Bern founds Center for AI in Medicine

The University of Bern and the Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, are founding a leading Center for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine in Bern with the University Psychiatry Services and the sitem-insel translational research hub as partners. The virtual research center to be launched in January 2021 will unite Bernese expertise in medicine, computer science and engineering to educate future generations of “digital native” medical professionals and develop new AI technologies for the benefit of patients.

Details and University of Bern press release...