Grant: Canada Research Chairs

Neurological disorders such as dementia, breast and colon cancer, and renal diseases place a heavy economic and health burden on Canadian society. Medical imaging is a critical way to diagnose disease, monitor disease progression, and to plan treatment. Manual analysis of medical images is both subjective and time consuming, leading to delays in delivering treatment, worse patient outcomes and reduced quality of care (QoC). As medical imaging data is acquired digitally, novel artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms can be leveraged to improve Turn-Around-Times (TATs), healthcare access and QoC. Computer-generated biomarkers from medical images can improve diagnostic accuracy, TAT and increase access to radiological and pathological expertise. While biomarkers should be comparable across different sources and scanning methods, variances in the way medical data was originally acquired in the hospital make it difficult to accurately compare, analyze data and extract relevant results. Building on her expertise in AI tool development, medical imaging and biomedical engineering, Dr. April Khademi’s research program will overcome these challenges through computational resources and novel AI algorithms for multicentre Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI) and digital pathology images. Her research program will focus on (1) digital radiology, and in particular, neurological MRI, with the goal of improving glioma, dementia and vascular disease progression monitoring, determining optimal intervention times and learning more about disease; and (2) digital pathology focused on breast, renal and colorectal polyps due to the prevalence of disease in these organs, and the need for high volume interpretation. Her research will be used to augment radiology and pathology workflows to enhance diagnostic accuracy and medical imaging TATs for common cancers and neurological illnesses, making a significant contribution to Canadians’ health.