In an interesting turn for NASA, they’ve discovered that the same technology they use to enhance long-distance images returned from their many satellite and telescopes can be used to scan things much closer to home: Mammograms.
“My original concept was geared to Earth science,” Tilton said. “I never thought it would be used for medical imaging.” In fact, he initially was skeptical; that is, until he processed cell images and was able to see details not visible in unprocessed displays of the image. “The cell features stood out real clearly and this made me realize that Barton was onto to something.”
They’re announcing this in coordination with Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Shown above, the left image is what doctors and medical experts typically see in a Mammogram result, while the right image is NASA’s enhanced version. Named the ‘MED-SEG’ system, it’s already in use at a few places like the New York University Medical Center, Yale-New Haven Medical Center, and the University of Maryland Medical Center.
They are already working on a 3D version of the algorithm.
Image from Flickr
via NASA – NASA Technology Could Aid in Interpretation of Mammograms, Ultrasound, Other Medical Imagery.
