Melbourne mums show how AI tool predicts future health of baby

Aussie mums are the pioneers of a new AI tool that may help predict the future health of a newborn — from a picture of their placenta.

Hudson Institute researchers say AI may help predict the future health of newborns, all from a photograph of the placenta.

Australian mums are the pioneers of a new AI tool that could help predict a baby’s future health from a picture of their placenta.

The 10 mothers formed Australia’s first pilot study of the tool that assesses the “health and wealth” of the placenta from an image captured immediately after birth on a digital device like an iPhone, iPad or Samsung.

The study was led by Emily Camm from the Hudson Institute of Medical Research working with researchers from the Mercy Hospital for Women, the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and the University of Western Australia.

“The placenta plays a pivotal role in a baby’s health,” Dr Camm said. “It is the organ that is really critical as it provides oxygen, nutrients, hormones and growth factors essential for foetal growth.”

The placenta is assessed from an image captured immediately after birth on a digital device. Picture: Supplied

The team collaborated with Penn State University researchers in the US who developed the AI tool called PlacentaVision that can measure a range of morphological features and diagnoses from digital images.

“So its shape, size, perimeter; whether there’s any bleeding or haemorrhaging or any indications of an infection,” she said. “It gives a snapshot of the health of the placenta.”

Dr Camm said the tool was trained using an invaluable dataset of thousands of photographs of placentas along with associated pathology reports.

She says the health of the placenta provided clues about a pregnancy and potentially a baby’s future.

On the flip side, the tool may also have the potential to predict those babies who are going to be healthy or even athletic in the future.

“Who knows?” Dr Camm says. “Where the team wants to head eventually is to see if this AI tool could be rolled out in various healthcare settings to get an indication of what a healthy placenta looks like and what those measurements are versus one that doesn’t look so healthy.”

She says it can reveal if something has gone wrong during the pregnancy, but may also provide clues potentially to the baby’s longer term health outcomes.

Dr Emily Camm from the Hudson Institute of Medical Research says the AI tool may provide a detailed fingerprint of an individual’s risk profile. Picture: Supplied

“Because there’s a lot of research linking the placenta to outcomes in later life such as risk of stroke, hypertension, metabolic and heart disease,” Dr Camm said.

“So if we can get a snapshot of what the placenta looks like at the time of delivery, it might help us guide clinical care, not only of the mum, but also the baby.”

The team published the results of the study in the European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology and Reproductive Biology.

Dr Camm says the results may lead to increased surveillance of a baby much earlier in life to make sure it is growing properly after birth.

Her team also confirmed placentas kept for later analysis were minimally impacted by being held in cold storage, the experience of the user taking the image or the technology used.

Dr Camm says this meant it can be used immediately, accurately and with confidence in remote locations globally.

“Potentially we could integrate the information obtained from the digital images and PlacentaVision with clinical data to provide a detailed fingerprint of an individual’s risk profile,” she said.

The team is now looking for funding to do a larger clinical study.

“I think there’s a lot to be said about collecting the placenta at the time of birth because it can give you information about the quality of the pregnancy and might also give you clues as to the baby’s longer term developmental outcomes,” Dr Camm said.

“It’s something that’s normally discarded at the time of birth, but it could provide valuable information or insight into your baby’s future.”