Summary
At Virgo, we recognize that, to advance AI in gastroenterology, data sharing and collaboration are key. We believe that a community resource of generalized imaging and data sets is essential to moving AI in GI forward, and we envision a world where this is possible through Virgo.
Building the Future of AI in GI: Solution for Data Sharing and Collaboration Challenges
The idea for Virgo began back in 2016 — since then, our vision at Virgo has not changed. Purpose-built to empower Gastroenterologists with video data, Virgo fuels the world’s largest and most diverse endoscopy video data set. Every day we work toward our mission to improve patient outcomes and clinical workflows by developing automation and AI tools for endoscopy.
However, as reinforced during The Future of AI in GI conference convened by the American Gastroenterological Association last fall, it is clear that there are still roadblocks in the way of AI development and implementation. One particular challenge highlighted by Dr. Ashish Atreja in a Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News article is that physicians and researchers remain restricted by the lack of adequate tools for collecting, collaborating on, and working with data for AI purposes.
This is, of course, right in Virgo’s wheelhouse! So in the spirit of collaboration, we actually decided to collaborate on a blog post with ChatGPT to share how we think about tackling this problem and enabling a brighter future for AI in GI. This morning, we prompted ChatGPT with a brief overview of Virgo and the following paragraph from Dr. Atreja’s article:
“Another challenge that the field needs to address is the problem of multiple proprietary platforms that limit data sharing and collaboration among gastroenterologists and research groups, nationally and internationally. There also are no generalized imaging and data sets available as a community resource for any researcher to work with. Hence, each researcher has to work through different operational, data sharing, compliance and legal challenges to get the right data sets on which to build, train or validate AI algorithms.”
The below response was drafted by ChatGPT and edited by us:
Artificial intelligence has the potential to and will become a key asset in a gastroenterologist’s toolkit. To some extent, AI is already used for real-time endoscopic decision support, clinical trial candidate matching, automated physician note-taking, and other clinical and practice efficiencies and so on. AI utilization is clearly trending up.
At Virgo, we recognize that, to advance AI in gastroenterology, data sharing and collaboration are key. Our cloud video capture, management, and AI analysis platform for GI endoscopy has helped leading medical centers around the US and beyond capture over half a million high-definition endoscopy videos and facilitated cross-center collaboration and unique machine learning research based on these growing data sets. We believe that a community resource of generalized imaging and data sets is essential to moving AI in GI forward, and we envision a world where this is possible through Virgo.
Physicians and researchers today must navigate various operational, data sharing, compliance, and legal challenges to get the right data sets to build, train or validate AI algorithms, as aptly recognized by Dr. Atreja. This not only limits collaboration among gastroenterologists and research groups but also delays the pace of AI adoption and advancement in gastroenterology. Virgo helps solve these challenges in a secure, HIPAA-compliant, SOC-2 compliant fashion, and we invite gastroenterologists and researchers to take advantage of our platform as a hub for endoscopy data sets and multi-institutional research and AI collaboration.
In addition to addressing the issue of data sharing and collaboration, we also believe in the importance of training future gastroenterologists with video-based learning tools. We believe that this emphasis on education will help gastroenterologists improve as practitioners while making informed decisions about the adoption and implementation of AI tools.
In conclusion, Virgo recognizes the challenges in data collection, sharing, and collaboration and its impact on the future of AI. We look forward to continuing working with the industry at large and providing a platform that enables easy data sharing and collaboration among gastroenterologists and research groups while complying with data privacy regulations. We also believe in the importance of education and training to foster responsible AI adoption. Together, we can advance AI in gastroenterology and improve patient care.
If you want to learn more about AI and its many use cases for healthcare, we highly encourage you to read, “AI in Clinical Medicine: A Practical Guide for Healthcare Professionals.” Within you’ll find Virgo’s co-founders Matt Schwartz and Ian Strug discuss the importance and benefits of implementing modern data infrastructure for video-based medicine. As always, send us a message if you’d like to get in touch with us to discuss what Virgo has to offer. We’d love to hear from you!