This federal Project Grant award for $691,176 from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.393 - Cancer Cause and Prevention Research) supports a study to implement strategies for decentralizing breast ultrasound services and facilitating timely breast cancer diagnoses in Rwanda. The primary objectives are to compare the impact of real-time teleultrasound versus asynchronous virtual supervision on the integration of diagnostic breast ultrasound into district hospitals, as well as the...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI), under its Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research program (CFDA 93.394), awarded a $400,000 Project Grant to Oraliva, Inc. to develop a novel, low-cost, fully integrated gynecological screening test that can provide point-of-care diagnostic accuracy comparable to current remote laboratory tests. The objective is to improve access to gynecological screening in low-resource settings by creating a rapid, AI-powered cytology screening tool that combines human...
This Project Grant award from the Fogarty International Center (CFDA 93.989 - International Research and Research Training) will support the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda to decentralize breast biopsy procedures to enable earlier cancer diagnosis and treatment. The $131,278 award, effective September 16, 2025 through August 31, 2030, will fund research to assess the feasibility of implementing decentralized breast biopsy services at district hospitals in Rwanda. This aims...
This Project Grant award of $672,087.00 was provided by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), under the federal Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health program (CFDA 93.286). The award aims to improve the diagnostic accuracy and cost-effectiveness of breast cancer screening through the development of an AI system that can determine the necessity of supplemental screening ultrasounds for women with dense breasts....
This Project Grant award of $371,161 from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.394 - Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research) supports the development of advanced AI-based models for cervical cancer screening in low-resource settings. The project aims to create risk stratification models that leverage time-series imaging data and self-supervised learning techniques to improve the diagnostic accuracy and consistency of automated visual evaluation (AVE) for detecting cervical intraepithelial...
The Project Grant award of $317,420 from the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research program (CFDA 93.394) to Calla Health Foundation supports the development and validation of a patient-ready callascope for cervical imaging. The key products and services to be delivered under this award include: A suite of point-of-care solutions to provide screening, diagnosis, and treatment alternatives to those used in high-resource settings for cervical cancer prevention. This...
This Project Grant award in the amount of $431,712, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), aims to improve HIV testing among children under five in rural Uganda. The primary goal is to engage with traditional healers to facilitate HIV counseling and testing via oral swab antigen tests for this vulnerable pediatric population. The award supports two key activities: 1) determining barriers and...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), under the federal grant program "Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health" (CFDA 93.286), aims to enable high-resolution ultrasound tomography (UST) imaging for improved breast cancer screening. The $124,999 award to the University of Rochester will fund research to: (1) mitigate cycle skipping effects that limit the usability of...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.394 - Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research) to the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research provides $263,086 to develop a multiparametric endoscopic ultrasound (MPEUS) imaging system and methodology for improved pancreatic cancer screening and characterization. The goal is to create a non-subjective, quantitative approach for detecting and characterizing pancreatic cancer and precursor lesions in high-risk...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Project Grant award (CFDA 47.070) of $195,000 will fund the development of a weakly-supervised breast cancer detection system using active and weakly-supervised learning techniques to improve breast cancer diagnosis from ultrasound images. The project aims to create a deep learning model that can detect breast cancer effectively with minimal annotations, addressing the challenges of noisy, low-contrast...
BREAST CANCER DIAGNOSTIC KIT TO IMPROVE EARLY DIAGNOSIS IN UGANDA - ABSTRACT: BREAST CANCER IN UGANDA PRESENTS A PRESSING PUBLIC HEALTH CHALLENGE, CHARACTERIZED BY LATE-STAGE DIAGNOSES AND HIGH MORTALITY RATES, PARTICULARLY AMONG WOMEN RESIDING IN RURAL AND SEMI-URBAN AREAS. THIS PROPOSAL ADDRESSES THIS CRITICAL ISSUE BY OPTIMIZING, VALIDATING, AND DEPLOYING A POINT-OF-CARE DIAGNOSTIC KIT, TAILORED FOR PRIMARY CARE CLINICS IN UGANDA, WHERE MOST WOMEN ACCESS CARE. THE PROPOSED DIAGNOSTIC KIT COMBINES (1) AN FDA-CLEARED AUTOMATED AI-ENABLED WHOLE BREAST ULTRASOUND AND (2) A SMARTPHONE- ENABLED AI-POWERED DEVICE THAT PERFORMS BRIGHTFIELD IMAGING OF BASIC CYTOLOGY PREPARATIONS AND INCORPORATES A SELF-CONTAINED IMMUNODIAGNOSTIC CHIP TO QUANTIFY BREAST TUMOR BIOMARKERS. OUR APPROACH INVOLVES A TWO-FOLD VALIDATION STRATEGY. FIRST, WE WILL VALIDATE THE DIAGNOSTIC PERFORMANCE OF THE PROPOSED DIAGNOSTIC KIT IN A U.S. CLINICAL SETTING, COMPARING IT TO STANDARD-OF-CARE METHODS SUCH AS ULTRASOUND, MAMMOGRAPHY, TISSUE SAMPLING, AND PATHOLOGY (AIM 1). UTILIZING QUALITY IMPROVEMENT CYCLES AND FEEDBACK FROM END-USERS, WE WILL REFINE THE KIT'S PERFORMANCE AND USABILITY. NEXT, WE WILL VALIDATE THE KIT AT THE UGANDA CANCER INSTITUTE, TAILORING IT TO UGANDA'S HEALTHCARE LANDSCAPE, CONSIDERING FACTORS LIKE INFRASTRUCTURE, HEALTH WORKERS' EXPERTISE, AND ACCESSIBILITY (AIM 2). FOLLOWING VALIDATION, AND GUIDED BY A UGANDAN COMMUNITY ADVISORY BOARD, WE WILL IMPLEMENT A CLUSTER RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL INVOLVING EIGHT COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS (CHCS) ACROSS TWO HEALTH DISTRICTS IN UGANDA (AIM 3). A MOBILE BREAST CANCER DETECTION CLINIC WILL DELIVER THE DIAGNOSTIC KIT TO CHCS DURING BI-MONTHLY BREAST HEALTH DAYS FOR N=1000 PATIENTS REFERRED FOR DIAGNOSTIC EVALUATION, AT 4 CHCS. WE WILL COMPARE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE DIAGNOSTIC KIT WITH WOMEN RECEIVING CARE AT CONTROL CHCS, WHO WILL BE REFERRED FOR STANDARD-OF-CARE ULTRASOUND AT REGIONAL HOSPITALS (N=1000). OUR COLLABORATION DRAWS UPON EXPERTISE IN ENGINEERING AND BIOMEDICAL DEVICE DEVELOPMENT, BREAST CANCER RESEARCH, AND GLOBAL HEALTH, POSITIONING US TO SIGNIFICANTLY IMPACT BREAST CANCER OUTCOMES IN UGANDA. THIS INITIATIVE ALIGNS WITH THE RFA-CA-24-005 MISSION TO DEVELOP CANCER-RELEVANT TECHNOLOGIES SUITABLE FOR USE IN LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIES. BY VALIDATING AND DEPLOYING A PRACTICAL, COST-EFFECTIVE, AND USER-FRIENDLY DETECTION AND DIAGNOSTIC TECHNOLOGY, WE AIM TO EMPOWER HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS IN UGANDA AND, ULTIMATELY, IMPROVE PATIENT OUTCOMES. IF SUCCESSFUL, THIS INNOVATION STANDS TO ENHANCE ACCESS TO TIMELY BREAST CANCER DETECTION AND DIAGNOSIS IN RESOURCE- CONSTRAINED SETTINGS.