Samsung Medison and Intel come together to improve the quality of anesthesia delivery through Nerve Track, a real time nerve tracking ultrasound that helps anesthesiologists to quickly administer anesthesia by identifying nerves on a patient’s arm.

Samsug’s Medison claims that it can reduce 30 percent of scanning time by leveraging the Intel Distribution of OpenVINO toolkit for computer vision and annotation.

Considering needle-based procedures namely vascular entry and peripheral nerve block, ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia (UGRA) is becoming a norm; although, even with UGRA anesthesiologists may have difficulty to precisely identify nerves since nerves can be smalls as two-millimeters in diameter or to see the needle tip properly.

Nerve Track comes with two benefits where it can identify nerves in real time for anesthesiologists and also tackles any possible complications as it improves the workflow.

“NerveTrack can detect the median and ulnar nerves with good precision over almost the entire length of the forearm. Even if the doctor does not trace from the wrist to the proximal direction, it can shorten inspection time by detecting nerves in real time. It can also detect the ulnar nerve, for example, even though landmarks such as the ulnar artery are not nearby. This type of function could amount to safe needle procedures by separating nerves from surrounding tissues and vessels”, said Professor Jee Youn Moon of Seoul National University Hospital.

The device has been developed based on Intel’s OpenVINO, where through interference it can detect and identify the area in which the nerves are located during an ultrasound scan and helps to improve the treatment workflow for anesthesiologists. In addition, the total volume of training data increased by 7x with Intel's OpenVINO CVAT (Computer Vision Annotation Tool), resulting in a 20 percent improvement in accuracy.

“To keep up with the evolving world of healthcare, you need trusted partners and scalable technologies,” said Dr. Won-Chul Bang, responsible for product strategy, Samsung Medison.
“That's why our NerveTrack solution was developed in partnership with Intel. We're using groundbreaking tools to help clinicians detect nerves faster and more reliably, thanks to our combined industry experience and cutting-edge solutions. As a consequence, there is a possibility of reduced risk, improved patient outcomes, and more effective workflows,” he added.

Samsung’s proprietary real time algorithm which detects nerves automatically through ultrasound photos is possible when it requires a huge amount of clinical ultrasound data.

“NerveTrack could help physicians simplify repetitive and time-consuming activities, allowing them to spend more time with their patients,” said Alex Flores, Intel's medical imaging director for health and life sciences. “We're keenly coordinating with Samsung Medison to help boost patient satisfaction and reduce doctor workloads,” he added.