An 18-year-old girl has been diagnosed with infertility. She was born without a uterus/ vagina, the doctor claimed, following years of research, blood tests, scans, and physical examinations. She tried to understand that this was one of those times when life is irreversibly changed as tears streamed down her cheeks. You know, it had been such a difficult road up to that moment. Years passed before this diagnosis was made. And doctors still don't know what to recommend to her next.

However, 1 in 6 couples globally are infertile, thus this is not the unique situation. Less than 2%, meanwhile, can get the care they require. For those who are, receiving a diagnosis and receiving treatment typically take more than three years and two years, respectively. The majority of that treatment is trial and error. Additionally, they will still have a 30% probability of becoming parents.

Did you know that this is a global problem? Fertility rates are declining and are now below replacement rate. It's a global problem with significant consequences to individuals, but also to societies and economies. However, the truth is that hospitals and clinics would not be able to meet the demand even if governments wished to make fertility care available to everyone. Because we just lack the facilities and procedures necessary to meet that demand and treat the 98% of people who still want our assistance, as well as enough qualified physicians, nurses, and embryologists. How can the diagnosis and necessary therapy be made available to everyone on the planet?

Medline Academics

Right education can change the world. And right treatment can give you the ‘One more chance to witness the joy of life.’ One such school is Medline Academics, which is located in Bangalore, India's Silicon Valley. Numerous medical professionals from all over the world come here to receive extensive training in reproductive healthcare. Since AI is pervasive, why not in healthcare? The curriculum for Fellowship in Reproductive Medicine in India designed by this institution covers the latest advancements in Reproductive Medicine including artificial intelligence. Besides, Medline Academics offer Hybrid as well as full time fellowship in reproductive medicine mode for the same course. It consists of Live Lectures, Self Study Modules, Simulation Training and Clinical Postings.

You see, our bodies are highly complex. There are many factors that can affect fertility, many possible diagnoses, many possible treatments. And the same patient being checked by different doctors will be given different treatment pathways. But why does this happen? Healthcare professionals are limited by their brains in their capacity to process and analyse an ever-growing amount of information. In medical school, doctors are taught, if you hear hoof beats, think of horses, not zebras. Doctors are being trained to consider the most likely situation first because zebras are far less common than horses. Finally, based on our experience and understanding, medical experts learn to recognize the most likely patterns, the horses. Therefore, they begin to grasp how to treat them after seeing 100 individuals with the same issue. Perhaps. However, it is extremely difficult to make a diagnosis or recommend a course of treatment with high accuracy when a patient appears with a very unusual illness.

Dr. Kamini Rao Hospitals

Dr. Kamini Rao Hospitals operates as an infertility hospital in Bangalore, which focuses on delivering advanced infertility medical care and reproductive healthcare. Padma Shri Prof. Dr. Kamini A. Rao launched the hospital through her vision in assisted reproductive technology creating a full suite of fertility treatments which covers IVF IUI ICSI egg freezing and surrogacy care and procedures to help male infertility cases. The facility delivers individualized treatment for all patients through skilled personnel together with advanced medical systems and dedicated attention to patients. Dr. Kamini Rao Hospitals maintains ethical along with evidence-based medical standards that deliver the most successful outcomes in fertility treatments.

But how different would it be if doctors had access to superpowers and could tell us exactly what is the diagnosis, what is the treatment, and just get rid of the trial and error? Maybe artificial intelligence can help us get there.

Artificial Intelligence

When we mention about AI, we are not talking about making babies in space. Neither are robots going to take away our job. We are discussing about something so much easier to comprehend. Just like Netflix recommends which shows to watch based on your preferences or past behaviours, or just like Google Maps recommends the route to take, the same technologies can be applied to reproductive medicine.

In this case, what is the diagnosis or what is the treatment most likely to result in a baby? So much better and faster than a human being. It's about empowering healthcare professionals with the knowledge and experience that would take them more than a lifetime to develop. So artificial intelligence is really about giving doctors the superpowers to diagnose accurately and treat accordingly. Some of these procedures already exist.

Using computer vision algorithms to check eggs, sperm, and embryos. And for an embryologist, instead of them looking down the microscope and making a one-moment-in-time decision, they can rely on artificial intelligence to identify the shapes, the movements, and the patterns over time to make a more balanced decision. And by choosing the best eggs, best sperm, best embryo, they are already improving the chances of having a baby.

But would it surprise you that it takes more than a good egg and a good sperm to make a baby? What if we bring artificial intelligence into the consultation room, where we can analyse vast amounts of data from your clinical history, your test results, but also your genetics, your lifestyle, your nutrition, all the factors that ultimately impact the quality of the eggs and sperm that do end up in the lab, the capacity of these to become an embryo, and the ability of this embryo to evolve into a baby? AI helps us identify these patterns that our human brains just cannot see. In the blink of an eye, it helps us rule out things that just aren't important and improve a diagnosis.

It helps us test different drugs, dosages, and timings to treat certain conditions. And we are starting to predict outcomes, checking which treatment protocol is more likely to result in a live birth. Ultimately, we will be able to check exactly what treatment has worked for thousands of patients.

In the near future, AI will allow us to discover new conditions that up to now remain undiagnosed, discover new medicines to treat infertility problems that up to now remain chronic, like polycystic ovarian syndrome or endometriosis. We will also be able to integrate several AI systems from patient intake to diagnosis to treatment. And in that moment, imagine any clinician, regardless of experience, they will be able to confirm a diagnosis and start data-driven treatment. And any patient, regardless of where they are in the world, will be able to be tested remotely, diagnosed faster, and start appropriate treatment.

How different will it be for the 17-year-old girl when doctors have access to those superpowers? Because it shouldn't take three years just to have a diagnosis, and it shouldn't be treatment by trial and error. It certainly shouldn't be seven years to have a baby. Time matters when trying to conceive, and infertility is so much more than not being able to have children. It is a global problem, and care shouldn't be a privilege available only to a few.

“We dream of a day when everyone can access the diagnosis and treatment they need. Maybe that day is already around the corner.”