Petaling Jaya, 20 July 2022 – Alpha IVF, a leading reproductive centre in Kota Damansara is utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) for In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) in a bid to optimize and increase its patient’s success rate. The centre has been actively involved in the research & development of AI in IVF practice since 2018, in collaboration with other AI innovators from Australia, USA, Denmark and Poland.
Dubbed as precision medicine, AI-enhanced embryo selection is demonstrating a 25% improvement in accuracy in choosing the embryo for transfer when compared to the conventional embryologist morphology assessment, thereby improving the outcome.
“The AI-enhanced embryo selection software is fed with our embryo images taken from the embryo scope. The software algorithm will scan the images and provide a score up to 10 based on the implantation potential and likelihood of creating a pregnancy. The higher the score, the higher the chance of implantation,” said the centre’s Chief Embryologist Adelle Yun Xin Lim.
The world’s first AI application for commercial use in IVF was launched by Presagen, a San Francisco based AI healthcare company. Alpha IVF took the lead to offer this new generation application in Malaysia in late 2020. This AI application works as an enhanced tool to assist physicians and embryologists in selecting the most viable embryo for transfer. Alpha IVF achieved the first healthy live birth following the transfer of embryos selected using AI in South-East Asia in 2021, in its very first case that such an application was deployed. (Lim AYX et al, OGSM 2021).
“The AI algorithm was built using deep machine learning that identifies traits from a huge and growing number of embryo databases from around the world that have previously brought on successful pregnancies. The AI starts by assessing known components of the embryo that indicate its quality, and at the same time, identifies complex patterns that are too difficult for the human eye to see. AI then combines these different contributions in the right proportion and generates an AI Score. The higher the AI score, the higher the likelihood of implantation,” she added.
Cost of doing an IVF program in Malaysia is generally considered high at an average of RM 15000 – RM 18000 and its success rate is, however, not 100%. On average, the success rates still hovers between 50%-80%. Physicians and scientists around the world are working towards improving the odds of conceiving and bringing the gap closer to a 100%.
Alpha IVF & Women’s Specialists Medical Director Dato’ Dr Colin Lee said, “We believe that the continued use of current and advanced technology is the way to go in order to achieve higher pregnancy rates. And in Alpha, we are constantly involved in the R&D to identify those sub-optimal areas that we could bring in advanced technology such as AI to improve it.”
With the added advantage that AI can offer to IVF patients, Alpha IVF, a pioneer in many advanced technologies in its depository, is now offering the service free of charge to patients with the hope of achieving higher pregnancy rates.
Alongside the development of AI in IVF practice, in June 2022, Alpha IVF and Presegen (USA & Australia) published a ground-breaking result where another novel AI algorithm called Life Whisperer Genetics was developed to assess the genetic integrity of embryos non-invasively using only images. This study was published in Human Reproduction Journal (Diakiw et al, 2022), and is poised to bring new hope to IVF patients in time to come.
