Brock grad student exploring diagnosing lower back pain with articifical intelligence

Lower back pain is a very common disorder and that’s why one Kinesiology graduate student from Brock University is trying to explore diagnosing it with artificial intelligence (AI).

“With limited access in research equipment, medical imaging technology and my interest in artificial intelligence, I was inspired to create a diagnostic tool that is effective and accessible for those with lower back pain,” said student Carl Alano.

Alano tore his ACL three years ago and that experience on top of other barriers that delayed the process of getting a correct diagnosis led him to his research.

“That experience was pretty bad as there is very limited access to an MRI machine so with that limited access, I was misdiagnosed and re-injured 2 times after my injury and it wasn’t a year later that I was able to use the MRI machine,” explained Alano.

The long wait times to get seen by doctors and overcrowded hospitals were just some problems made worse by the pandemic.

These problems are the ones Alano hopes to address using an AI software and a video camera from a laptop or a smartphone.

“Participants can scan the QR code and complete the survey anywhere, it would just be three simple movements that you would do in your normal life – this includes a small object pickup, a squat and a spine function,” said Alano.

Kinesiology assistant professor and thesis advisor Dr. Shawn Beaudette said the research could be life-changing, not just for patients but also for clinicians. “In this type of setting, we can start to gather movements just using a simple web camera and allow a clinician to evaluate the way somebody moves objectively so this lets clinicians to diagnose movement disorders or track rehabilitation over the long-term as well.”

He added the scope of what could be diagnosed could be expanded as well. “It might not be as useful to other types of disorders but we’re going see where the research goes and we’ll try to apply it to as many different disorders and pathologies as we can.”

Alano is still looking for about a thousand participants aged 18 to 85 that are willing to join the study. His end goal to make as many health partners as possible access the virtual screening tool so patients can skip the unnecessary hospital line-up.

If you would like to more information about the study, you can find out more here.