Neurabot Startup Builds a Covid-19’s Early-detection Method

The Ministry of Industry appreciates the domestic startup company, Neurabot, as the developer of a centralized data mining platform for the identified image of Covid-19 patients. The company is part of an artificial intelligence and information technology (Task Force AI & IT) task force in handling the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia.

“We give high appreciation to Neurabot who contributed to the handling of the Covid-19 outbreak in Indonesia,” said the Director-General of Small, Medium, and Various Industries (IKMA) of the Ministry of Industry, Gati Wibawaningsih in Jakarta, Monday (06/08/2020).

Neurabot, who is a finalist in the Startup 4 Industry program initiated by the Ministry of Industry in 2018, together with artificial intelligent (AI) experts and academics in AI in Indonesia is also tasked with developing the application of deep learning technology in the examination of lung CT scans, as well as plain chest photographs (x-ray).

This is one of the modalities for the rapid-test of Covid-19 cases with high sensitivity and specificity so that it can help clinical decision making in the current pandemic. Director-General of IKMA explained, Neurabot is a startup that gets copyright in the field of “Digital Image Processing Laboratory Platform with Artificial Intelligence Technology”.

“The AI ​​algorithm is one of the intellectual property for startups that must be protected. Our IPR clinic has facilitated its copyrights and brands,” Gati added.

Neurabot Has Received International Awards Several Times

Previously, Neurabot also won awards when representing Indonesia in several international competitions, including Asia Hardware Battle 2018, Best AI / Machine Learning, and HealthTech Startup at the 2018 Rice Bowl StartUp Awards, Indonesia.

“We hope Neurabot will further develop and become a provider of AI technology in the health sector so that it can accelerate the implementation of industry 4.0,” Gati said.

According to him, AI became the target of technology fostered by the Directorate General of IKMA as one of the foundations for the application of industry 4.0. The Ministry of Industry’s efforts to grow AI startups is carried out through the Making Indonesia Startup 4.0 (Startup 4 Industry) program that has been running since 2018.

Gati added, the growth of technology startups was a part of the Ministry of Industry’s priority steps to accelerate the transformation towards industry 4.0.

“The Startup 4 Industry Program is expected to be a catalyst in the process of digital transformation for national SMEs based on solving the problems they face. This is for the sake of the realization of superior SMIs for the future of a better Indonesian industry,” she explained.

Neurabot’s Founder & CEO, Indarto explained, one of the challenges faced in the use of technology developed was that the majority of Covid-19 referral hospitals still use plain chest x-ray examinations whose sensitivity is lower than low-dose pulmonary CT scans (LDCT) ) in detecting changes in the patient’s lung structure.

“However, Neurabot together with AI experts who are members of this task force will continue to work on all available data sources, including plain chest data and clinical data as an amplifier to produce AI-based early identification solutions precisely and quickly,” Indarto said.

This Platform Provides Solutions in Health and Biotechnology’s Field

The first solution for Neurabot is “My Lab”, the first digital image processing laboratory platform in Indonesia in the fields of health and biotechnology.

Through this platform, Neurabot presents a digital laboratory based on microscopic images and radiological images, which allows users to collaborate on research, processing digital image data, digitizing, and storing data.

Second, Neurabot is “AI Lab”, which is able to process medical image data and biotechnology that have been collected with the help of artificial intelligence.

The result is information in the form of prediction, calculation, identification, and segmentation of an object or condition, which is useful directly when making decisions (decision support system) in the process of diagnosing a disease, including when the Covid-19 pandemic.

Indarto said Neurabot aims to build an ecosystem in the field of science that combines artificial intelligence technology with human intelligence, but without replacing humans.