Revolutionizing Assisted Reproduction and its future through AI-identification of embryos

Reproductive science is enjoying a phase of rapid transformation, owing to the tech advancements taking place, making IVF procedures safer, efficient, affordable, and accessible. Prior to the embryo implantation procedure, aneuploidy screening and genetic testing of embryos became a routine in the last few years. This has been highly instrumental in making pregnancy even healthier and safer.


In the year 1978, Louisa Brown became the first child born through In-vitro fertilization, and since then, the science of assisted reproduction has witnessed tremendous success. Not only in developed countries but also in the developing world, IVF is gaining its ground slowly but steadily. The emergence of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) over three decades ago has opened the door to the accessibility of oocyte and pre-implantation embryo.

IVF’s success attained its peak in the late 90s and early 2000s, owing to the fact that the world started taking nutritional and environmental needs of the embryo very serious. Multiple kinds of research are currently taking place on how to improve the success rate of In-vitro fertilization further.

Reproductive science is enjoying a phase of rapid transformation, owing to the tech advancements taking place, making IVF procedures safer, efficient, affordable, and accessible. Prior to the embryo implantation procedure, aneuploidy screening and genetic testing of embryos became a routine in the last few years. This has been highly instrumental in making pregnancy even healthier and safer.

In today’s era, IVF treatment has become extremely popular. In the United States of America, around 1.7 per cent of the babies are born through techniques of assisted reproduction. So what does the future of ART looks like? According to Dr Gautam Allahbadia, a Mumbai-based IVF specialist, multiple approaches are currently being explored for further improvements in IVF’s success rate, which, he believes, can be possible through a better understanding of embryo quality. This will also help in quick identification of the healthy embryo for transfer.

The new possibility in Embryo Identification:

New imaging and sophisticated genetic techniques are being used by multiple researchers and medical experts to find new possibilities in predicting the genetic structure of embryos. They have found that AI-integration in the process of Embryo identification could increase its accuracy. Data analysis has proved that applying the Machine Learning Algorithms to large clinical data sets can be helpful in improving the accuracy of IVF treatment’s outcome.

The technology of Artificial Intelligence systems can identify the most effective embryos. To help in successful pregnancy, the technique can identify the accuracy of even a 5-day-old In Vitro fertilized embryo. Analyzing time-lapse images of the early-stage embryos, the technology has proved to improve the success rate of IVF and minimize multiple pregnancies risk.

Choosing the embryo with the best chances of developing into a healthy pregnancy is currently a subjective process. “By introducing new technology into the field of IVF, we can automate and standardize a process that was dependent on subjective human judgement,” says Dr Gautam Allahbadia Mumbai, a leading Mumbai-based infertility consultant.

Researches and studies            

Going deeper into a theory is the best way to explore it properly. The Artificial Intelligence approach that is roughly modeled after the neural networks of the brain needs to be studied with deeper intentions. The ability of a hard disc full of new information to recognize the desired patterns is better than the one without.

The approach helps in identifying a healthy embryo’s features. In these techniques, the training data set’s volume plays an important role in the algorithm success, since more data leads to better outcomes.

Fertility doctors often implant multiple embryos for enhancing the probability of a successful birth. The biggest drawback of this process is it can result in multiple pregnancies, in addition to various complications including low weight, premature delivery, and other problems to the mother. For addressing these issues, experts in the field developed a different approach that determines the best combination for the ideal birth by taking into account the mother’s age and embryos’ quality.

Although the Al-integration IVF technique is in the testing phase, specialists in the field see it as a technology for the future. Multiple researches and studies are currently going on to customize the process for patients individually. Technologies of Al-integration are showing remarkable potential to meet individuals’ requirements of infertility patients.

 

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