2016 Innovation Competition (Boston, MA)

Ultrasound for home cancer monitoring

Many imaging modalities require ionizing radiation to see within the body in order to make an assessment or diagnosis. Unfortunately, this ionizing radiation can cause damage at the cellular level, leading to adverse effects such as cancer. Ultrasound technology offers an imaging method without exposure to ionizing radiation, and it is easier and cheaper to manufacture than CT and MRI systems. Today, ultrasound is primarily confined to hospital settings due to the need for skilled technicians to obtain quality images and physicians to interpret them. While there are some portable ultrasound systems on the market today for $3-5K, they require specialized skill to operate and interpret the image output. These factors prevent current ultrasound systems from being truly usable and portable for the patient at home. Our ultrasound system will be the first to automate the process of capturing an ultrasound image for assessment of cancer recurrence in the head, neck and thyroid areas so specialized skill is no longer required for capturing quality images. Our software will also automate image and subsequent assessment processing for detecting cancer recurrence. By deploying our system to the home, we will allow patients to collect quantitative imaging data more frequently so as to minimize the time elapsed between possible recurrences of cancer for a fraction of the cost of the current state of the art technology.

Alex Krull (akrull@alum.mit.edu)