Eyes of AI™ has developed one of the most sophisticated AI-driven radiological tools in the world to enhance diagnostic accuracy, precision and speed in the dental industry – and to reduce the risk of diagnostic errors and overlooked diseases. Chief executive officer Khoa Le says the iAwards experience helped the team perfect its pitch for international success.
Eyes of AI technology provides dentists with a more detailed and granular view of x-ray images.
Five years ago, Khoa Le was working as a data and AI engineer for the financial sector when a telephone conversation with his dentist brother, Dr Sen Le, planted the seed for a new venture.
Sen told Khoa how he needed to spend time after hours analysing patient x-rays, with each x-ray taking up to 30 minutes to properly assess. Khoa had experience in the AI field of computer vision and believed he could use this tool to help his brother complete this task much faster.
“I wrote a new program that was similar to the work I had been doing,” Khoa explains. “It enabled the x-rays to be analysed in about seven seconds.”
It was the start of their new venture – Eyes of AI.
Improved abnormality detection – faster
The solution is a world-first in using AI to detect granular anatomical structures and diseases in 2D and 3D x-ray images to help improve dental outcomes for patients and streamline a dentists’ clinical work. The cloud-based solution not only saves Sen and other dentists huge amounts of time by analysing x-rays and generating reports within seconds for the five most common dental radiographs, but the team has trained the AI on millions of pieces of data to improve diagnosis and patient care.
“The solution provides enhanced visualisations for the clinician,” Khoa explains. “It will detect anything that’s not considered normal in the teeth area.”
Dentists who use it have reported it helping them to detect “subtle nuances” that could have been missed with “the naked eye on a flat image”. The solution is designed to not only benefit patients and dentists, but radiologists, periodontists, maxillofacial surgeons and other dental professionals.
The iAwards journey
Eyes of AI started its iAwards journey with a win at the NSW State Ceremony in the Business & Industry category, then received a merit certificate at the National Ceremony in this same category and the Technology Platform category.
Khoa points out that Eyes of AI shares these wins with CSIRO Data61, with which they collaborated to develop the solution after benefiting from the CSIRO Kick-Start initiative. They then entered the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards following “encouragement” from iAwards judges at the National Ceremony.
Khoa says the National iAwards helped prepare them for the international stage. “During the national presentation we had a few questions that we couldn’t answer as well as we hoped and so were mindful of refining our pitches going to APICTA.”
The refinement worked. Eyes of AI won the APICTA category of Research & Development Project of the Year and a merit for AI Project of the Year.
While award recognition offers good credentials to market a solution, get exposure and raise brand awareness, Khoa says it was also great to spend time together as a team. “It was a chance for us to spend some time together outside of work. Given our intense focus on reaching milestones and our dedication to hard work, taking a moment to relax and share a laugh was refreshing.”
In March, their world-first solution and new products will feature at the Australian Dental Conference, as Eyes of AI continues to set new standards for dental radiograph analysis and abnormality detection.
Note: Western Australian innovators enter the iAwards National competition through the state-based INCITE Awards. Entries close Tuesday 2 April.
Tasmanian innovators enter through the TasICT Awards.