It’s time for some good news in healthcare. While COVID-19 has crowded the headlines with doom and gloom, a team of surgeons in Ireland has been quietly revolutionizing how hospitals handle organ transplants.

“Over the last three months, we’ve done 90 kidney transplants and pretty much cleared the whole waiting list in Northern Ireland,” said Tim Brown, (pictured, right), consultant transplant surgeon at Belfast City Hospital.

The technology that eliminated the backlog for transplants is micro-precise organ imaging, which provides personalized anatomical insights. Using Amazon Web Services Inc.’s SageMaker machine-learning platform, Axial3D Ltd.’s platform takes existing two-dimensional scans and creates three-dimensional, printable models of patient organs for preoperative study.

“We estimate there are about 3 million of these complex surgeries each year that can benefit greatly from this enhanced imaging,” said Axial3D’s Chief Executive Officer Roger Johnston, (pictured, left).

Johnston and Brown spoke with John Furrier, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, about the AWS Public Sector Partner Awards, where Axial3D and Belfast City won for the “Most innovative AI/ML solution.” They discussed the 3D surgical imaging advances made possible by artificial intelligence and how Belfast City has been implementing them to speed the organ transplant pipeline and save lives. (* Disclosure below.)

Better tech means better patient outcomes

In the past, Belfast City was able to perform around 10 transplants a year. Axial3D’s imaging technology enabled the hospital to increase that number 36-fold, showing its potential to eliminate transplant backlogs worldwide, according to Johnston.

“The value is that instead of trying to interpret what a 2D image CT or MRI scan might mean, [a surgeon] can actually see … exactly what he’s going to find when he starts the surgery,” Johnston said.

This ability to plan ahead leads to less time spent in the operating room, more precise scheduling and use of surgical equipment and personnel, and less risk of complications for the patient. This means faster recovery with less time spent in the hospital. In short, “better outcomes for the healthcare system and, most importantly, the patient,” Johnston stated.

Unlike 2D images, which require highly skilled doctors to interpret, the 3D images are simple to create and view. This allows doctors to explain problems and treatment options to the patient and involve them in the decision-making process.

“These supercomputers have taken all of my heavy lifting away,” Brown said, explaining how he can create 3D images with one-click simplicity. “This is one of the true representations of high technology really advancing real-world solutions.”

In a two-for-one best-case outcome, Brown tells of a patient with end-stage renal failure whose father wanted to donate his organ to help her. However, during the preoperative studies, Brown discovered a tumor in his kidney. In the past, this would have been a lose-lose situation, with the kidney consigned to the trash as useless and both patients in a terminal situation. However, thanks to the precision of Axial3D’s imaging technology, the surgical team was able to remove the kidney, precisely cut around the tumor to eliminate it, then repair the kidney and transplant it into the daughter.

“With the technology that was available, we were able to save two lives,” Brown concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the AWS Public Sector 2020 Partner Awards Program. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the AWS Public Sector – Partner Awards event. Neither Amazon Web Services Inc., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE