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Prognica Labs and Advanced Care Oncology Center signs a Strategic Partnership Agreement.
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February 08, 2022, Dubai – Prognica Labs, UAE’s leading health-tech startup has partnered with Advanced Care Oncology Center, to accelerate and intensify breast cancer screening with the use of advanced AI diagnostic technology.

Prognica Labs, Dubai based AI health-tech startup for interpreting radiology images, is excited to announce a strategic partnership with Advanced Care Oncology Center, demonstrating ongoing commitment to integrate innovative new technologies into the UAE’s healthcare ecosystem, with a mission to make early detection and diagnosis of Breast Cancer, more accurate, accessible & affordable.

Breast cancer is among the top three cancers in women in the UAE, with its incidence and prevalence now occurring in women as young as 30 and even below. In the past few years, there is an increase of 20% of breast cancer cases in the UAE.

Although mammogram and breast ultrasound screenings are easily performed in primary care and referral settings, the interpretation of these images requires significant skill and experience, and the lack of expertise in reading the imaging can result in missed or delayed diagnosis.

The AI solution will help in;

  • Triage: A systematic prioritizing of patients’ treatment according to how urgent they need care, influencing the order and priority of emergency.
  • Breast Density: Quickly categorizes breast tissue (dense / fibrograndular & fatty / adipose) into a density category.
  • Lesion Detection: With ~90% accuracy separating cysts and masses.
  • Segmentation & Classification: Fully automated Region of Interest (ROI) detection finding mass abnormalities and classifying benign / malignancy.
  • Diagnostic Reporting: Customized reports to support radiologists.

“Prognica Labs is transforming breast cancer diagnosis with innovative AI solutions,” said Khalid Shaikh, Founder and CEO of Prognica Labs. “We are excited to partner with Advanced Care Oncology Center to deploy our AI solutions and empower with faster turnaround times and quality diagnosis”.

The partnership aims to harness and scale-up the use of this technology to improve early-stage detection of breast cancer in the markets involved, to reduce mortality rates and improve patient outcomes. As part of the strategic collaboration, Advanced Care Oncology Center will work with Prognica Labs to explore the application of deep learning algorithms to identify patients with suspicious radiographic breast abnormalities and support their referral to arrive at a firm diagnosis. The collaboration will also focus on overcoming barriers that limit access to diagnostic tools to support early detection of breast cancer.

“This cutting-edge AI technology will help our teams quickly prioritize urgent cases, speed up diagnosis, and improve quality”, says Bashir Reslan, Executive Director of Advanced Care Oncology Center. “When it comes to cancer, the earlier you catch it, the better the prognosis – so getting us critical results faster will help save lives. The partnership with Prognica Labs underlines a pioneering role and represents yet another step in our ambition to become the most digitally enabled provider of diagnostic services in UAE”

About Prognica Labs: Prognica Labs is an award winning Dubai based AI powered health-tech company aiming to improve clinical outcomes in the fight against breast cancer. Prognica analyses medical images and generates information and data to help predict and diagnose cancer using artificial intelligence and deep learning. Prognica is tackling a long term goal by working on breast cancer screening and diagnostics to make it more accurate, affordable and accessible.

About Advanced Care Oncology Center: Advanced Care Oncology Center is engaged in business consultation in medical imaging field and possesses wide range of contacts and networks in the societies of radiology and other related areas of healthcare service in the Middle East and African (MEA) countries (“Region”), Advanced Care Oncology Center is committed to providing our patients with comprehensive oncological care which includes diagnostic services, prevention and treatments, while giving physical, emotional, and supportive care for our patients. Offering the most recent advanced techniques in delivering radiation treatment such as IGRT, IMRT/VMAT and also PET/CT Scans, Chemotherapy, and Radiotherapy.

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Prognica Labs & IntelliDent AI, organizes seminar on “Advancing Women’s Health and Wellbeing”
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Dubai, UAE, 25 Jan, 2022: Prognica Labs & IntelliDent AI, in alignment with the vision of Dubai Health Strategy 2021 as a strategic pillar in the dissemination of evidence-based healthcare education, organized “Advancing Women’s Health and Wellbeing” seminar.

“Healthy Women, Healthy Community”, embodies the fact that as custodians of family health, women play a critical role in maintaining the health and overall well-being of her communities. However, because of the many roles women play, they too often are focused on the health care of their spouse or children, while neglecting their own needs. Therefore, it is imperative that women take the time to maintain good health for themselves as well.

At each stage of a woman’s life, there are important preventative health care steps to follow in order to provide early detection of medical problems. Many women may neglect health care exams for a number of reasons, however, in the end it comes down to whether or not you wish to make yourself a priority. After putting so much energy into caring for the lives of others, it is time women deserve that same level of care toward themselves. We at Prognica Labs, understand the importance of women’s health, and educating the communities on the best preventative treatments and latest wellness strategies.

This comprehensive session focused on social and clinical updates in the continuum across primary, secondary and tertiary care for women with emphasis on evidence-based approach. As a part of commitment to community health and well-being and the quest to involve all the dignitaries to magnify the cause, this event served its purpose by prioritising Women’s preventive health.

A faculty of experts and leaders discussed the most important issues in women’s health and wellness in a rapidly changing global landscape.

Mr. Ghanim Alfalasi, Senior Vice President of Technology and Innovation at Dtec, inaugurated the seminar, which was hosted by Marwa Al Krad. He pointed out the importance of women’s health and wellbeing and the implications it have on community welfare as they are the custodians of family health. He highlighted the importance of preventive healthcare and policies in this regard.

Dr. Sreelekshmi Bekal, Medical Director at IntelliDent AI gave a concise introduction to Prognica Labs & IntelliDent AI and their undertakings in research, publications and community health activities. She detailed how health-tech companies like Prognica and IntelliDent AI advocates preventive care and making healthcare accessible & affordable.

Dr Abdul Rahman El Kinge, Head of Hematology Oncology Dept at NMC Royal Hospital & Adjunct Asst. Prof. at University of Sharjah, presented a rousing session on ‘Changing the approach to Women’s health’ stressing on screening and early detection of breast cancer along with risks and prevention. He highlighted that, ‘Women should be proactive regarding their health: My health matters!’

In addition, an informative session was presented by Dr. Mena Shaher, Founder and Head of Breast Unit of NMC Royal Hospital , Sharjah on ‘Women’s health for every age and every stage’. She busted many myths associated with breast cancer and imaging. She focused on the importance of early screening and detection of any anomalies and interacted with audience in addressing their queries.

Followed by this, was an interactive session with Tina Chagoury, a Clinical Dietitician, Media spokesperson and a breast cancer survivor on ‘A journey from diagnosing breast cancer, to an inspiration‘. Tina opened up and shared her candid accounts of navigating the impact of cancer to tackling it with grit and determination.

Furthermore, Dr Hafsa Al Idrissi, a Prosthodontist, Medical Director at Noor Al Wasl Clinic and Founder of Health Pillar discussed about ‘Women’s Oral Health Across the life span’. In this illuminating session, she educated on how oral health is beyond just teeth and gums and how it affect the systemic health, especially in women.

  

  

  

  

  

  

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Prognica Labs rolls out free Breast Cancer Screening and Awareness Campaign
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Source: Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority, Al Khaleej News

Dubai, UAE: 06 June, 2021 – Prognica Labs, a Dubai-based AI-powered health tech startup, today announced a free breast cancer screening and awareness campaign that will run until June 15, 2021, in collaboration with and support of Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (www.dsoa.ae) and Zulekha Hospital (www.zulekhahospitals.com). The campaign aims to raise awareness of breast cancer within community, through providing free screening and consultation along with interactive panel discussions, seminars and workshops featuring doctors, radiologists, survivors, and experts.

Khalid Shaikh, founder CEO of Prognica Labs says, “We are aiming to improve clinical outcomes in the fight against breast cancer and make the screening and diagnostics more accurate, affordable and accessible”. Prevention and early detection are central to our mission to help save and celebrate lives and lead the fight against breast cancer.”

“With research being a core focus at Prognica, we strive to accelerate cancer research tailored to local burdens and knowledge gaps needed for continuous improvement of public health in the UAE and the wider MENA region.” Khalid adds.

This campaign is in line with the World-Class Healthcare pillar of the UAE’s National Agenda of the UAE Vision 2021, which emphasizes the importance of preventive medicine and seeks to reduce cancer.

The objectives of this campaign include raising public awareness, educating residents in UAE on the importance of early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of breast cancer, providing guidance, identifying risks and preventive measures.

According to a statistic by Al Jalila Foundation, Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women with 1 in 8 women being diagnosed in their lifetime. On the bright side, though, 98 percent of breast cancer diagnoses can be treated if detected early. In the UAE, more than 75 percent of breast cancer patients seek medical advice after experiencing symptoms. Through its campaign, Prognica Labs aims to turn the tables and break myths around the subject – making it a norm to educate oneself on the matter.

Zanubia Shams, Co-Chairperson- Zulekha Hospital, said: “Although we are occupied and coping with the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on our lives, we cannot forget our non-COVID-19 health conditions that may project a higher risk for our bodies at a later stage. Saving people’s life remains our core objective, and we will spare no effort in achieving it through such ongoing campaigns that promote early detection and prevention of diseases.”

For his part, Hans Christensen, Vice President at Dubai Technology Entrepreneur Campus (Dtec), said: “Dubai Technology Entrepreneur Campus is currently home to more than 900 startups from 72 countries, with more than 30 of them in the health technology field, and over 50 of the total number of startups utilizing artificial intelligence in their respective domain. We are confident in the power of AI – in business and in health – and strong supporters of promising startups and entrepreneurs within our community. Hence, our partnership with Prognica Labs on their campaign to reach a wider audience, especially since they focus on cancer – a disease that is a component of the UAE’s National Agenda of the UAE Vision 2021.”

For national or regional cancer control programs, research is an essential component of planning, implementation, and monitoring the program’s effectiveness. In addition, research improves patient outcomes and creates national wealth through innovation.

“Research is the only way to understand breast cancer, how and why it progresses, and how it can ultimately be stopped.” Says Dr. Ibrahim Bani (MD, DTM&H, PhD), Associate Professor at Ajman University and Research Associate at Prognica Labs.

Check details at http://www.prognica.com/bc2021/

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Prognica Labs partners with Ajman University to boost Higher Education in UAE
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January 16, 2020, Dubai – Prognica Labs, an AI based healthtech company, has announced a collaborative research and education agreement with Ajman University (AU), an internationally recognized institution of higher education and research in UAE, to advance research and innovation in Medical and Technology.

In today’s economic environment, collaboration between universities and industry is increasingly perceived as a vehicle to enhance innovation through knowledge exchange, according to Dr. Kamran Arshad, Dean of Graduate Studies and Research, AU. “This Industry-University collaboration provides the perfect foundation for innovation.”

University-Industry partnerships are becoming increasingly important to help students gain the leadership and entrepreneurial skills needed to create innovation and generate solutions to emerging social challenges of the 21st century, he added.

This collaboration is meant to give a boost to knowledge exchange and transfer in the area of engineering, medical science, technology innovation and entrepreneurship. It is also intended to mentor students and faculty, empower and implement their ideas. – Dr. Arshad stated.

Writing research papers and/or research-based books that can be published on various journals, conducting seminars, cohorts, idea competitions for students and faculty, are further realms of this partnership, he elaborated. “Young researchers will be receiving assistance in identifying the characteristics of the economic environment under this agreement.”

Dr. Arshad said factors, such as competition amongst emerging economies, and increasingly complex technological developments make the landscape simply too volatile.

“The university world can see the benefits of looking beyond the theoretical and taking an active role in overseeing the transfer of new knowledge into practical applications.”

Ajman University

Ajman University, the first private higher education institution in the gulf countries, has, for the second year in a row, earned a spot among the top 150 universities in the world under 50 years within QS World University Rankings of the ‘Top 50 Under 50’.

Ajman University, as per the 2020 QS World University Rankings issued in June 2019, is now ranked among the top 800 institutions worldwide, securing a position in the top 2.8% of universities worldwide and the top 1.7% of institutions in the Arab world.

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Khalid wins the “Technology Rising Star of the Year” award.
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Oct 06, 2019. Dubai – Khalid Shaikh, Founder, CEO of Prognica Labs, has been named “Technology Rising Star of the Year” at the high-profile Future Enterprise Awards 2019 hosted by TahawulTech.

Khalid is working relentlessly towards a long term goal of making cancer screening and diagnostics more accurate, affordable and accessible by building an AI platform.

“I am excited to win this award, and could not have achieved it without all the hard work and dedication of a great team and the support of our advisors. The future is bright for Prognica as there are great products coming on the way and great opportunities for our technology all around the world.”

Healthcare as we know today has several problems.

  • The first one being that, the doctor-to-patient ratio is terribly low worldwide.
  • The doctors themselves are overworked and overstretched which may lead to the variability and subjectivity in the way that the diseases are diagnosed and treated.
  • And the quality medical equipments are quite expensive, which make it difficult for any organization to adopt the latest technology at scale.

“We at Prognica are trying to address these issues through data and intelligence. We are developing the next generation smart screening technology for medical image analysis that healthcare providers and patients can confidently rely on” says Khalid.

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Khalid Shaikh, participated as a judge at the Startup Battle
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April 24, 2019. Dubai – Our CEO, Khalid Shaikh, participated as a judge at the Startup Battle by Startup.Network in Dubai. Startup Battle is a business-format event where selected entrepreneurs compete for the attention of VCs, Angels and corporate investors, bringing together the entire community to share ideas, collaborate across markets, and capitalize on emerging trends. The Startup Battle – Dubai, was held on Wednesday, April 24, is a competition for disruptive, early-stage companies who are creating, innovating or enhancing real-world systems technologies and applications.

I am honored to be invited by Startup.Network to be a part of Startup Battle judging panel, and to take part in this opportunity to support startups.
It feels exhilarating especially after interacting with the kind of founders with their startups and the contestants who have the ‘self-starter’ attitude.

For more information about the competition, please click here.

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Khalid Shaikh discusses the “Role of AI in Healthcare & Medical Education” at Pallazo Vercase, Dubai.
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April 11, 2018. Dubai – The adoption of artificial intelligence in healthcare is on the rise and solving a variety of problems for patients, hospitals, medical education and healthcare industry overall.

Our CEO Khalid Shaikh shared the stage with additional experts conveying differing perspectives on artificial intelligence, the maturity and future of the technologies, and how developments in these areas affect healthcare industr at the ‘1st Annual International Conference on the Role of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Medical Education’, at the Palazzo Versace Dubai, organised by Thumbay Group

The conference drew together expert speakers from the US, UK, Switzerland, UAE, India and Australia to discuss the scope, impact and opportunities of AI in healthcare and medical education.

His Highness Shaikh Mohammed Maktoum Juma Almaktoum, Chairman, MBM Groups, Dubai was the chief guest of the conference.

“There is some limited understanding of AI among the healthcare industry, but actually being able to implement it to solve problems and create opportunities is the real challenge,” Khalid said.

The other co-panelists include;

  • Prof. Hossam Hamdy – Chancellor, Gulf Medical University – Moderator
  • Dr. Ajit Nagpal, Chairman & Director General, Amity University Middle East Initiative
  • Dr. Ashok Gupta, – Recipient of The Padmashree award, Lifetime Achievement Award on Health and Philanthropy,
  • Mrs. Amina Al Saadi
  • Dr. P K Menon
  • Dr. Malligre Prassanassana

 

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Prognica featured in Innovation & Tech magazine
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The Purpose

Cancer is usually characterized as a heterogeneous disease with different types and subtypes that involve uncontrolled cellular growth and reproduction. It is one of the leading causes of death in the developed and the developing world; almost a million people around the globe are losing the fight against cancer every year. The early diagnosis and prognosis of a cancer type have become inexorable in cancer research. In UAE, approximately 4500 new cases of cancer are reported every year, which equals to 12 new cases a day, according to Abu Dhabi Health Authority. Cancer is the third leading cause of death in UAE, after cardiovascular disease and accidents. Prognica, an AI powered health-tech startup, aims to improve clinical outcomes and accelerate the discovery of breakthrough advancements in the fight against cancer. Prognica analyses medical images and generates information and data to help predict and diagnose cancer using artificial intelligence and deep learning.

“Our goal is to develop intelligent, scalable and affordable disease screening solutions which can empower medical experts and facilitate quality healthcare delivery to the masses.”

 

The Technology

Our goal is to develop intelligent, scalable and affordable disease screening solutions which can empower medical experts and facilitate quality healthcare delivery to the masses. Our initial focus is on the solutions for the screening tests so that we can positively impact a larger population not only in UAE but the entire region. The company is now collaborating with few reputed healthcare providers and institution across UAE to develop its product.

The Challenges

The UAE healthcare sector poses two major challenges: Recruiting, educating and sustaining enough quality medical personnel and Medical costs According to HAAD projection report, Abu Dhabi will need 4,800 new doctors and 13,000 new nurses by 2022. And the Director General of the DHA estimated that Dubai will need 7,323 more doctors and 8,510 nurses over the next decade. The high cost of medical treatments and limited super specialized care in areas such as oncology and cardiology are driving outbound medical tourism.

The Solution and the Process

We have a clear vision: to reinvent cost effective disease management through early detection and intervention. We are tackling this long term goal by making cancer screening and diagnostics as accurate and accessible as possible, by using advanced analytics tools like image processing and deep learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP) to improve patient care, hospital administration, supply chain and logistic efficiencies. The process is to first digitize the sample slides through a microscope, scan whole slides and upload onto the cloud by converting the large image into a binary metadata. AI engine then takes over, which classify and tag the visual data, not only to churn out results, but also support it with visual evidence (like tagging & annotations) to make it easily verifiable. With the advancement of AI, as more and more new data keeps coming in, the machine continues to learn itself like humans. And it starts generating solutions. There is no need for a manual review by a pathologist by putting a slide under a microscope. Remote diagnosis is made possible, because the pathologist need not be sitting next to the microscope or blood slide. They can access from anywhere, anytime. Our method is primarily based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) and the Wide Res Net 50 residual network formulation. In our approach, we first trained the CNNs on a suitable set of test datasets. Then we applied the trained deep model to partially overlapping patches from each whole slide image (WSI) to create prediction heatmaps. By utilising machine learning on whole slide images (WSI), we have developed a prototype for automatic detection of metastasis in a lymph node. Our early results of detection were shown to have an accuracy of upto 73 percent. Our deep learning expert team and a pathologist is needed to work closely to translate the deep learning algorithms to digital pathology tasks. It is not that AI will entirely replace histopathologists, but rather it will provide increased efficiency and accuracy to the diagnosis, by providing a preliminary diagnosis much faster.

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Prognica featured in Gulf News Business
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Source: Gulf News

Dubai-based AI-powered health care start-up — Prognica — is aiming to improve clinical outcomes and accelerate the discovery of breakthrough advancements in the fight against cancer.

Khalid Shaikh, founder and CEO of the company, told Gulf News that the process is to first digitise the blood sample slides through a microscope, scan the whole slides and upload onto the cloud by converting the large image into a binary metadata.

“The AI engine then takes over, which classify and tag the visual data, not only to churn out results, but also support it with visual evidence (like tagging & annotations) to make it easily verifiable. With the advancement of AI, as more and more new data keep coming in, the machine continues to learn by itself like humans. And it starts generating solutions,” he said.

There is no need for a manual review by a pathologist by putting a slide under a microscope, he said, adding that remote diagnosis is made possible, because the pathologist need not be sitting next to the microscope or blood slide. They can access from anywhere, anytime.

For example, if it takes 30 minutes to analyse the blood sample, the AI software will take eight to 10 minutes to analyse and will be more accurate.

According to Abu Dhabi Health Authority’s stats, cancer is the third leading cause of death in UAE, after cardiovascular disease and accidents. About 4,500 new cases of cancer are reported every year in the UAE, which amount to almost 12 new cases a day.

Prognica analyses medical images and generates information and data to help predict and diagnose cancer using artificial intelligence and deep learning.

“Our goal is to develop intelligent, scalable and affordable disease screening solutions which can empower medical experts and facilitate quality health care delivery to the masses. Our initial focus is on the solutions for the screening tests so that we can positively impact a larger population not only in UAE but the entire region,” he said.

The company is now collaborating with few reputed health care providers and institutions across UAE to develop its product.
Shaikh said that the UAE health care sector poses two major challenges — recruiting, educating and sustaining enough quality medical personnel; and medical costs.

Quoting a HAAD projection report, he said that Abu Dhabi will need 4,800 new doctors and 13,000 new nurses by 2022, while the Director General of the DHA estimated that Dubai will need 7,323 more doctors and 8,510 nurses over the next decade. Shaikh added that the high cost of medical treatment and limited superspecialised care in areas such as oncology and cardiology are driving outbound medical tourism. “We have a clear vision — to reinvent cost effective disease management through early detection and intervention. We are tackling this long term goal by making cancer screening and diagnostics as accurate and accessible as possible, by using advanced analytics tools like image processing and deep learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP) to improve patient care, hospital administration, supply chain and logistic efficiencies.” he said.

“Our method is primarily based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) and the Wide Res Net 50 residual network formulation. In our approach, we first trained the CNNs on a suitable set of test data sets. Then we applied the trained deep model to partially overlapping patches from each whole slide image (WSI) to create prediction heatmaps,” he said.

By utilising machine learning on whole slide images (WSI), he said that the company has developed a prototype for automatic detection of metastasis in a lymph node. “Our early results of detection were shown to have an accuracy of up to 73 per cent. Our deep learning expert team and a pathologist is needed to work closely to translate the deep learning algorithms to digital pathology tasks,” he said.

Even though there is a misconception that AI will lead to job losses, he said that it is not that AI will entirely replace histopathologists, but rather it will provide increased efficiency and accuracy to the diagnosis, by providing a preliminary diagnosis much faster.

“My software is focusing on algorithms and it will facilitate the pathologist’s task. The investor community is already enthused by the artificial intelligence in health care and many tech giants are already into AI of health care,” he said.
Shaikh said that he is investing Dh500,000 in the next six months and this project requires a huge investment. “I will be looking for two investment partners only after six to nine months,” he said.

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