Siemens Healthineers and the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), through its Advancing Client-centered Care and Expanding Sustainable Services for TB (ACCESS TB) Project, will accelerate the adoption of AI to diagnose Tuberculosis (TB) in the big three regions in the Philippines.
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) software will help read digital chest X-rays that will be deployed across 28 sites in the regions of NCR, Central Luzon, and Calabarzon, where the biggest burden of TB is located. These sites are a combination of local government units (LGU) operated public hospitals and health centers equipped with digital X-ray — a pre-requisite for AI to be deployed at the site.
One of the biggest challenges AI addresses is the delay in providing X-ray results. Currently, patients wait up to several days to receive their results. The presumptive TB patient/s would have to travel back to the hospital for a sputum test for further assessment and confirmation. This extra visit incurs additional costs to the patient and in some cases, may result in lost daily wages. As a consequence, patients avoid revisiting the hospital, resulting in increasing the risk of TB transmission.
AI assisted chest X-ray provides results in less than one minute and patients with suspicious results are immediately requested to take the sputum test. Early diagnosis of TB ensures timely treatment for these patients. Through this, we aim to identify more TB cases that otherwise would have gone “missing”, especially in the case of asymptomatic patients. We are not only saving the travel time of the patient, but are also preventing TB from spreading, thereby providing the opportunity for the affected people to get early treatment and reduce the catastrophic cost of experience by people living with TB.
Tuberculosis in the Philippines: WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2024
- The Philippines account for 6.8% of the 10.8 million global total cases or about 739,000 cases.
- Between 2021 – 2023, the Philippines was among the biggest contributor to new TB cases at 7.8%.
- The Philippines was also among the 10 countries flagged by the WHO for being “high-burden” in terms of TB incidence, number of patients with TB and HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), and number of patients contracting multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB.
In the photo are:
- Michael Schmermer, President & Managing Director, Siemens Healthineers Philippines
- Tisha Boatman, Siemens Healthineers Executive Vice President, External Affairs and Healthcare Access, and breast cancer survivor
- Elvin Ivan Y. Uy, Executive Director, PBSP
In the photo are Tisha Boatman, Siemens Healthineers Executive Vice President, External Affairs and Healthcare Access; Michael Schmermer, President & Managing Director, Siemens Healthineers Philippines; and Elvin Ivan Y. Uy, Executive Director, PBSP
