New mother Lisa Smith turned to IVF after only having a small window to start a family in between her breast cancer treatments.
She’s been thrilled to hear Artificial Intelligence (AI) can now select embryos best suitable for IVF quicker than a scientist can, as a world-first study has found.
Smith told 9News the breakthrough was amazing.
“I think it’s incredible we’ve seen this progress in the innovation, research and the use of AI,” Smith said.
“It means parents can become parents faster…for me, time was the biggest factor.”
Embryos grow in an incubator fitted with a camera over five days.
Timelapse technology allows embryologists to look for physical changes and growth milestones without disturbing the embryo.
Now, in the largest study of its kind, AI has been used to assess the same milestones, picking the embryo best suited for transfer to a woman’s womb.
IVF Australia Fertility Specialist Dr Manny Mangat said the tool would signfiicantly help doctors with efficiency.
“The embryos are spied on by video technology that produces thousands of images of the embryo over that five-day period,” Mangat said.
“It will be a tool an embryologist can use to help with the assessment of embryos and improve workflow in the laboratory.”
The AI tool, called iDA, scores the embryos out of 10. The highest-graded embryo is used for the procedure.
The study compared the AI’s rating to those of an embryologist.
The study found pregnancy rates from each method were similar, but the AI was 10 times quicker at identifying the best embryo.
The results were published in the Nature Medicine journal.
One in 18 babies are conceived through IVF, with improvements in technology contributing to boosting success rates over the past decade.
