"AI will be integrally involved in not only the diagnosis of cancer but also in determining the prognosis and best therapeutic option”

South Korea-based Deep Bio, a pioneering artificial intelligence (AI) healthcare firm focused on cancer pathology, is making waves in the industry.

- Ayesha Siddiqui

Their recent involvement in the innovative CancerX initiative, part of the White House Cancer Moonshot programme, marks a pivotal moment. Spearheading advancements in deep learning and cancer pathology, Deep Bio aims to revolutionise cancer diagnosis and prognosis.

Sun Woo Kim, CEO, Deep Bio sheds light on their transformative mission, AI-driven healthcare, data privacy, among others. 

What inspired Deep Bio to focus on developing in vitro diagnostic software for cancer pathology?

With the advancement of AI like deep learning, AI can distinguish images and classify them for the first time, just as the human eyes can. I found that cancer detection and diagnosis were very subjective at that time. Pathologists have difficulty providing the exact tumour measurements using a microscope because human pathologists estimate the tumour area and provide the proportion of cancer information. Moreover, interobserver and intraobserver variability in the grading of tumours can impact therapy selection and patient outcomes. It would be good to apply AI technology for cancer pathology for accuracy and consistency.

How does Deep Bio leverage deep learning in its in vitro diagnostic software for cancer pathology?

Identifying diverse tissue morphological patterns related to tumour malignancy, differentiation levels, and prognosis in cancer pathology is crucial.

Deep learning proves highly effective in recognising specific patterns within large datasets, as demonstrated by its surpassing human recognition in the ImageNet challenge.