VITA Technology for the screening and diagnosis of cervical cancer

• Grant number: 17/22644-8
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Innovative Research in Small Business - PIPE
• Start date: May 01, 2019
• End date: January 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Biomedical Engineering - Bioengineering
• Principal Investigator: Ramon Adrian Salinas Franco
• Grantee: Ramon Adrian Salinas Franco
• Company: Ramon Adrian Salinas Franco
• CNAE: Atividades de serviços de complementação diagnóstica e terapêutica ; Atividades de apoio à gestão de saúde
• City: São Carlos
• Associated scholarship(s): 19/09477-0 - VITA technology for cervical Cancer screening and diagnosis, BP.PIPE

Abstract

Cervical cancer is responsible for thousands of deaths of women in Brazil. Cervical cancer also leads to high costs in treatment, despite being an easy to diagnose illness with lots of research done about cervical cancer detection and diagnosis. Project VITA is an initiative that integrates technologies to offer efficient, low-cost, and socially designed solutions for cervical cancer diagnosis and tracing. These solutions are possible because of the development of Vita software. Vita software eases servicing of isolated populations. Our goal is to develop an automatic image acquisition and processing system to be integrated to Vita software. That system will be used to perform cervical cancer tracing campaigns in Brazil, using conventional Pap smear, easily, quickly, and reliably. The experience to create Project VITA was gained through pilot tests done in Colombia and Brazil. First, a pilot test was done in 2012, in partnership with Fundación Universitaria de Ciencias de la Salud (FUCS), in a peripheral neighborhood in Cartagena (Colombia). In that experience, we tested the software with more than 300 patients. Research on informational flux for Pap smear procedures in Sao Carlos, Sao Paulo was done in Universidade Federal de São Carlos in 2015, in order to create optimization mechanisms in Pap smear procedures and diagnosis. In October 2017, we made a cervical cancer tracing campaign in Limeira and Sao Carlos, Sao Paulo, in partnership with: Fundação Universidade de Caixas do Sul, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Centro Univeritário Central Paulista, Hospital da mulher - CAISM, and Centro Comunitário - CECOM, attending 71 women and delivering smear results in 180 minutes (in Brazilian public health system, results are delivered in 20 to 40 days). At the moment, a PhD. Research project on early detection of anomalies in cervix cells through digital image processing is in development in Universidade Estadual de Campinas. In that project, we tested the efficacy of Vita software and we also obtained indicators of the needs for Pap smear procedures improvements in Brazil. As a result, we developed the first strategies to design and build Project VITA. Our team, composed by experienced people in interdisciplinary research, has professionals in engineering, histology and nursery. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

GALINDO JARAMILLO, JUAN F.; SALINAS FRANCO, RAMON ADRIAN; IEEE. Portable Technology of Low-Cost Image Digitizing for the Screening of Uterine Cancer in Latin America. 2022 IEEE LATIN AMERICAN ELECTRON DEVICES CONFERENCE (LAEDC), v. N/A, p. 4-pg., 2022-01-01. (17/22644-8)