MIT scientists are working on a new technology called ReMix, which relies on sensors that act like an “in-body GPS” instead of endoscopy or surgery to help make diagnoses and guide drug administration.
The researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) said their goal is a new approach to patient care that’s less expensive, invasive and time-consuming than has been previously been possible, reports MobiHealthNews.
MIT, a pioneer in medical technology, has recently been focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning. For example, CSAIL researchers are now searching for ways AI can be used to improve electronic health records, streamlining ICU data and helping with predictive models.
Related Implantable Device to Deliver Drugs to Pancreatic Cancer Tumors
The MIT researchers sought help from clinicians at Massachusetts General Hospital to develop Remix, which depends on complex algorithms to work, but also leverages other technologies – pinpointing the location of ingestible implants by way of low-power wireless signals.
MIT professor Dina Katabi has pioneered the use of such signals to detect subtle movements and even vital signs from a distance.
The researchers initially tested ReMix on an animal model where they implanted a small sensor in chicken fat and used a wireless device that is able to track it by reflecting radio signals. They deployed a specific algorithm to identify the location of the marker – which doesn’t have to transmit a signal of its own, only to reflect the one aimed at it by the wireless device, according to MobiHealthNews.
However, the problem, according to the researchers, is that wireless signals can bounce off many parts of a human body, but when they bounce off the skin, they are significantly more powerful compared to any implantable markers. So, they created a small semiconductor that helps differentiate different signals by combining them and filter the irrelevant frequencies.
For now, the system needs to be honed and fine-tuned before it can be used in clinical settings. Researcher said they want to find out how the system could locate tumor, therefore it can be used in treatments such as proton therapy for a cancers.
They’re planning to combine wireless signals with other data such as MRI scans to improve the system’s accuracy, and to do further research to assess how the algorithm may work in complex physiologies of different patients.
“We want a model that’s technically feasible, while still complex enough to accurately represent the human body,” said Deepak Vasisht, a PhD student at CSAIL and lead author ReMix research. “If we want to use this technology on actual cancer patients one day, it will have to come from better modeling a person’s physical structure.”
