Intelligent Ultrasound Group plc announced that it has signed a research agreement with the University of Dundee to initiate the first phase of proof-of-concept work to develop AI-based tools for screening patients with liver disease. Utilising the comprehensive archive comprising over one million ultrasound images from approximately 50,000 patients from the University of Dundee and NHS Tayside, the Intelligent Ultrasound team intends to create machine-learning models that make it easier to stage liver disease and monitor disease progression. The agreement, which is mainly royalty-based, will allow Intelligent Ultrasound to develop ultrasound-based AI tools with the potential to support clinicians in the clinical management of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and its advanced form, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH).

MASLD is the leading cause of liver disease and is closely related to obesity, the rates of which are rising. Monitoring MASLD is important as patients in the early stages of the disease may be able to reduce the effects on their liver with dietary and lifestyle changes if caught in time Around 30% of the world's population have MASLD, and by 2030 it is expected that healthcare systems will need to accurately stage the disease to allow them to target treatment. As current methods for diagnosis are either invasive, costly, or inaccurate, it is hoped that AI-based ultrasound may prove to be a cost-effective point of care technique that can give clinicians the answers they need.