Brain surgery can be challenging because doctors often don’t know what they’re dealing with until they take a sample of brain tissue. This process can take days, and surgeons have to make tough decisions without enough information.
To help with this, doctors at the Princess Máxima Center in the Netherlands are using a new AI tool called Sturgeon. It can identify brain tumors with 90% accuracy in less than 40 minutes, giving surgeons faster, better information during surgery.
Before this tool, doctors had to rely on a quick section, which takes about 20 minutes but isn’t always accurate. If doctors don’t have the right details, they may remove too much tissue, like in one case where a surgeon removed part of a brain tumor only to find later it was less dangerous than they thought.
Sturgeon uses a device called a nanopore sequencer to read DNA quickly and works with AI to tell doctors what kind of tumor it is. This tool is not only fast but also affordable, making it useful for hospitals around the world. With Sturgeon, doctors can make better decisions and save lives.
Source: nationalgeographic
