Bowel cancer is the second most-common cause of cancer death in Scotland, with around 1,600 people dying of the disease each year. The current detection method involves inserting an endoscope, a thin flexible tube with a camera on the end, into a patient’s colon which then travels around the large bowel allowing doctors to check for cancer.
The new procedure being developed by the research team - known as a Clinical Capsule Endoscopy (CCE) – utilises an artificial intelligence-assisted ‘smart pill’ containing cameras (pictured below) which, once swallowed by a patient, records images of the intestines as it passes through.
At present, images captured by the capsules are reviewed by trained doctors, but AI offers the potential to safely and ethically speed up the process, make it more cost-effective and increase its use.
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