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To kick off our new collaboration with the Start4All research team at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, we were invited to participate in a series of stakeholder meetings in Geneva last week. We met key project stakeholders working on Tuberculosis Diagnostics, learnt about the wider Start4All programs and gained valuable insights into how we can best deliver this exciting new project.
We recently joined the Start4All Research team at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) to work on the development of Computer Aided Diagnosis (CAD) of Tuberculosis in Chest X-rays of children.
The goal of Start4All is to explore how health services can improve TB diagnosis for those people who currently face high barriers to diagnosis and treatment.
One of the ways in which this can be achieved in places where health workers are scarce is through the use of mobile Chest X-rays with Computer Aided Diagnosis instead of human readers. This solution is now well developed for adults and adolescents, but still needs more investigation before it can safely be used in younger children.
Worldwide Radiology will bring together a team of experts to review Chest X-rays from children in the Start4All study to help build the evidence for this approach for children. We will be sharing more information about this new project soon.
As our first project activity, we were invited to join the LSTM team for a number of stakeholder meetings in Geneva to share knowledge and meet the key partners of the Start4All programme, such as the StopTB partnership, the WHO Pediatrics TB team and the programme funders from UNITAID.
We had several discussions on how we set up our project and we learned a lot from other groups’ experience and challenges. We come away with a much clearer idea of what is needed and how we can best contribute to it. We have also had some mind bending conversations about the benefits and challenges of AI in medical imaging.
Apart from the Start4All work, it was also very exciting and encouraging to find that there were many other participants in the meetings interested to hear about Worldwide Radiology’s work more in general and we made some great connections for potential future collaborations.
We have come away with much to think about, many new amazing contacts, and we look forward to the debrief meeting at LSTM and to getting stuck into the actual project work.
We are grateful to our funders and lovely hosts in Geneva at the Global Health Campus and we especially thank StopTB for the best WorldTB day 2024 photo opportunity!
More about TB
Despite medical advancements, TB remains one of the leading infectious killers globally. It is deeply intertwined with socioeconomic factors, increasing existing inequalities. Limited access to healthcare, overcrowded living conditions, malnutrition, and weakened immune systems create fertile ground for TB to thrive, especially in marginalised communities.
The battle against TB is far from over. While progress has been made in some regions, the emergence of drug-resistant strains presents new challenges. Without urgent action, TB could become even more resilient, posing a greater threat to public health. To turn the tide, we must prioritise TB on the global health agenda. This means investing in research for new treatments, diagnostics, and vaccines.
It means strengthening health systems to ensure everyone, regardless of income or location, has access to quality care.
And it means addressing the social determinants of TB, tackling poverty, improving nutrition, and providing adequate housing.
Learn more about TB and the theme for this year's World Tuberculosis Day here:
