China Medical University Hospital (CMU Hospital) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Sysmex, a leading Japanese clinical medical testing group, and announced a collaboration on "urine sediment image feature recognition", in which Sysmex will provide medical images of urine sediment through a cloud-based platform, and the hospital will use artificial intelligence (AI) image data to help Sysmex to identify difficult to identify disease features on its examination images. The hospital is using artificial intelligence (AI) image data to help Sysmex to identify and mark disease features that are difficult to recognise, moving towards smart healthcare.

The collaboration with Sysmex is expected to further realise smart healthcare by combining the hospital's AI with the identification of clinically collected urine sediment images, which can effectively shorten the laboratory testing process and improve efficiency through manual tagging and deep machine learning. The two parties expect to be able to quickly and accurately identify urological diseases, kidney diseases and cancers in patients from urine examination, and to work together to safeguard the health of the nation.

Notably, the cylindrical, crystalline and cellular morphology of urine sediment is often an important indicator of many diseases, yet the more difficult morphology may not be immediately recognisable in general medical laboratories. The collaboration will further optimise the image characteristics of urine sediment and enhance its recognition capability through AI imaging," said Der-Yang Cho, superintendent of CMU Hospital.

This will help to improve the overall efficiency and accuracy of the testing process, detecting abnormalities at an early stage of the disease, giving patients the right treatment and reducing the overuse of antibiotics.

The Sysmex Group was established in Kobe, Japan in 1968 and has been in business for 54 years. Sysmex has the world's largest market share in the field of blood cell, blood clotting and urine sediment testing.

For example, pus urine with a large number of white blood cells may be present in acute pyelonephritis or urinary tract infections; haematuria may be present in renal filamentous haemorrhage or non-renal filamentous haemorrhage; and recent studies have shown that the presence of deformed red blood cells in haematuria is significantly associated with renal filamentous nephritis. Through a collaborative study with the Taiwan branch of the Sysmex group, CMU Hospital is helping to provide patients with a non-invasive, quick and easy routine urine test for early diagnosis, eliminating the need for invasive tests such as cystoscopy and biopsy of the affected area.