Global Good and Motic Introduce Breakthrough AI-Powered Digital Scanning System to Fight Malaria Using Motic EasyScan Techology

Combining Motic’s digital slide scanner technology with machine learning, EasyScan GO automatically and accurately detects malaria parasites within minutes, providing vital support to microscopists and enabling effective tracking of the mutating disease through standardized diagnoses. The future of quality automated malarial diagnosis begins now.

Xiamen, China and Bellevue, Washington – Nov. 14, 2017 – Digital pathology provider Motic Instruments announced yesterday at MEDICA 2017 that it has partnered with the Global Good Fund, a collaboration between Intellectual Ventures and Bill Gates to develop technologies for humanitarian impact. This new partnership will create and distribute the EasyScan GO*, a breakthrough AI-powered scanner system based on the Motic EasyScan digital slide scanner, to fight the spread of drug-resistant malaria and assist in case management. Using custom image recognition software, EasyScan GO is capable of identifying and counting malaria parasites in a blood smear within minutes, providing crucial diagnosis support and drastically reducing the workload for doctors fighting the disease on the front lines.

“This partnership, combining Global Good’s impact invention focus with Motic’s engineering, manufacturing and distribution capabilities, represents the type of innovative healthcare solution that is needed to improve health in emerging and low-income markets,” said Maurizio Vecchione, Intellectual Ventures’ Executive Vice President of Global Good and Research. “By distributing and commercializing an intelligent microscope, Global Good and Motic are creating a future where quality diagnosis of multiple diseases is within reach for everyone, everywhere.”

“Malaria is one of the hardest diseases to identify on a microscope slide,” said David Bell, Director of Global Health Technologies supporting Global Good. “By putting machine learning-enabled microscopes in the hands of laboratory technicians, we can overcome two major barriers to combating the mutating parasite—improving diagnosis in case management and standardizing detection across geographies and time.”

Every year, malaria kills almost half a million people, and researchers estimate nearly half the world’s population is at risk of contracting it. The rapid spread of a multidrug-resistant strain in parts of Southeast Asia is a particularly alarming development detailed by researchers in a letter published recently in The Lancet.

Accurate detection of severe and drug-resistant cases requires analysis of a blood smear by a WHO-certified expert microscopist, which takes roughly 20 minutes per slide. Automating the process with an intelligent scanning system can alleviate the shortfall of trained personnel in under-resourced countries.

Field tests of an early prototype of the system presented at the International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV) showed that the machine learning algorithm developed by Global Good is as reliable as an expert microscopist.

“Our goal in integrating Global Good’s advanced software into Motic’s high-quality, affordable digital slide scanner is to simplify and standardize malaria detection,” said Richard Yeung, Vice President of Motic China. “Success with the most difficult-to-identify disease paves the way for the EasyScan product line to excel at almost any microscopy task and to detect other major diseases that affect developed and emerging markets alike.”

In fact, EasyScan GO is currently being trained to recognize all species of malaria and the team is exploring its application to other parasites and traits commonly found on a blood film, including Chagas disease, microfilaria and sickle cell, as well as other sample types, such as sputum, feces and tissue. For more, please visit: www.easyscango.com.

About Intellectual Ventures’ Global Good Fund

Global Good is dedicated to inventing technology for humanitarian impact. Millions of people suffer and die each year in poor countries from causes that humanity has the scientific and technical ability to solve. Funded by Bill Gates and focused on a shared vision with Nathan Myhrvold, Global Good invents technology to solve some of humanity’s most daunting problems. Global Good does this by collaborating with leading humanitarian organizations, forward-looking governments, research institutions, and corporate and private sector partners that bring our inventions to market. www.globalgood.com

About Motic

Motic is a groundbreaking company specialized in the development and manufacturing of digital pathology systems and microscopy solutions. Motic’s optical expertise, thorough and heartfelt customer service, and aim to enhance the microscopy experience, has grown the company into a global brand within everyone’s reach.

We are committed to stand by our young scientists from their early steps, improve healthcare and support the progress of scientific research by adapting to the market trends, and by focusing on advanced digital solutions aimed to fulfill the needs of today and exceed the expectations of tomorrow. www.motic.com

*Motic EasyScan is a product line of Motic Group, all rights reserved.