Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide, with nearly 1.7 million new cases diagnosed in 2012 (second most common cancer overall). This represents about 12% of all new cancer cases and 25% of all cancers in women.
According to the World Health Organisation (Global Heath Estimates 2013). Although breast cancer is thought to be a disease of the developed world, almost 50% of breast cancer cases and 58% of deaths occur in less developed countries.
This includes India, where for every two women newly diagnosed with breast cancer in India, one of them will die; 70K of every 144K women newly detected with breast cancer die yearly (breast cancer India, 2016).
Project Objectives
This project therefore seeks to develop Thermotech (a novel portable thermography –based health detection application for use as a highly efficient, less invasive, more convenient and safe breast cancer screening tool).
THERMOTECT aims to apply thermography and computer-based image interpretation to deliver improved detection, non-ionisation, safety and user/patient experience as a portable mobile device application.
This project makes a direct contribution to early detection and therefore the improvement of the welfare of India’s population where one in every two women diagnosed with breast cancer die every year. Socio-economic benefits.
Through the development within Thermotech, the project partners aim to improve the lives and decrease poverty levels of people in India.
The Thermotech solution will make way for the reduction on hardware costs in the Indian health services industry through the analysis of user data and individual breast development and will increase the UK health manufacturing industry’s competitiveness globally.
This project will result in the optimization of healthcare infrastructures within 5 yrs. by the Indian government and health agencies. The solution will equally provide information for ‘smart health’ efforts, improve satisfaction and the health experience of millions of patients (30 million women in India alone).
The Portability of Thermotech means it can be used by mobile healthcare personnel to bring healthcare to people in rural and
underdeveloped areas (68% of the population in India).
The patient community; early detection (stage 1) increases chances of survival by 85%. Remote and self-imaging reduces need for patients to regularly travel long distances to hospitals (reducing fuel usage, cost and CO2 emissions by 3.5%).