Breast screening can detect breast cancer early, when treatments are most effective. Dr Jihong Zhu is creating a robotic assistant to help people with physical difficulties to position themselves comfortably and correctly during their screening appointment.
In this section
What's the challenge?
Breast screening uses a breast x-ray, called a mammogram, to look for cancer that may be too small to see or feel. The sooner breast cancer is diagnosed, the more effective the treatment is likely to be.
Some people with limited or no upper body strength (due to age, injury, or disability) can have difficulties in positioning themselves correctly during breast screening. This can stop them from attending their screening appointments and getting diagnosed sooner. We need to address this so that everyone can access breast screening and feel comfortable during it.
My team will work with people who struggle to access mammograms, to design an AI-enabled robotic system to help maintain the correct posture for screening. We’ll make sure it meets the needs of both patients and healthcare professionals. This will make breast screening more accessible and reduce health disparities.
Dr Jihong Zhu
The science behind the project
Breast screening usually includes 4 separate X-ray scans providing 2 views of each breast. To make sure the scan is accurate, the person having it usually needs to have a certain amount of physical strength to position themselves in the correct way.
So Jihong and his team are working with clinicians, engineers and patients to develop a robotic assistant to help with posture. They want it to be safe, effective, and provide comfort and dignity during the screening process. They’re calling it MammoBot. It uses advanced sensors and artificial intelligence (AI) to support and position people accurately for mammograms.
Safety experts will perform tests to make sure the human-robot interactions are safe during breast screening. The researchers will also use feedback from radiologists and patients during screening to evaluate if the robot is making breast screenings better.
What difference will this project make?
Breast screening can be inaccessible to some people. This project aims to remove some of the barriers that people with limited or no upper body strength face when it comes to screening. It could help more people feel in control of their health. And it could help to detect more breast cancers sooner, when treatments are most effective.
How many people could this project help?
Thousands. This research could lead to technology that allows more eligible people to access breast screening. And in the future, the technology could also be adapted to use in other areas of healthcare to help many more people.
Find out more
The sooner breast cancer is diagnosed, the more effective the treatment is likely to be. Screening can pick up breast cancer before there are any signs or symptoms.