title: Distributed medical image analysis and diagnosis through crowd-sourced games: a malaria case study.
abstract: In this work we investigate whether the innate visual recognition and learning capabilities of untrained humans can be used in conducting reliable microscopic analysis of biomedical samples toward diagnosis. For this purpose, we designed entertaining digital games that are interfaced with artificial learning and processing back-ends to demonstrate that in the case of binary medical diagnostics decisions (e.g., infected vs. uninfected), with the use of crowd-sourced games it is possible to approach the accuracy of medical experts in making such diagnoses. Specifically, using non-expert gamers we report diagnosis of malaria infected red blood cells with an accuracy that is within 1.25% of the diagnostics decisions made by a trained medical professional.
authors.affiliation: Electrical Engineering Department, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Sam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mavandadi
authors.forename: Stoyan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dimitrov
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Uzair
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Sikora
authors.forename: Oguzhan
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Yaglidere
authors.forename: Swati
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Padmanabhan
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.forename: Aydogan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ozcan
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D001773:Blood Cells / Q000469:parasitology; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008288:Malaria / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000469:parasitology; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011340:Problem Solving; D018910:Video Games