While pneumonia poses a significant global health challenge, its burden falls disproportionately on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where it is the leading cause of hospital and intensive care admissions. Paradoxically, the majority of pneumonia research originates from high-income countries, creating a critical knowledge gap that hinders effective diagnosis and treatment in the very places where it’s most needed.
Building on over eight years of innovative research, OUCRU, in partnership with The Institute of Biomedical Engineering and the Computational Health Informatics (CHI) Lab, University of Oxford and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases (Ho Chi Minh City) aims to develop novel artificial intelligence (AI) tools for the treatment of severe pneumonia. This project will combine cutting-edge AI, advanced pathogen identification techniques, and immune profiling to improve care for critically ill patients while advancing the scientific understanding of pneumonia in LMICs.
The innovations team at OUCRU recently started testing the feasibility of wearable devices linked to AI models to predict outcomes in patients in the intensive care unit (ICU).
Principal Investigator Associate Professor Louise Thwaites, Senior Clinical Research Fellow at OUCRU said: ‘We believe this research has the potential to significantly impact a critical public health issue – pneumonia in resource-limited settings. Importantly, the methods we’re developing can be adapted to address other diseases as well.’