Rapid diagnostic test data repository available to digital health developers supporting resource-constrained markets
New Diagnostic Image Repository of reliable, complete, and ethically sourced diagnostic datasets is now available to developers and manufacturers working on digital health technologies.
PATH is pleased to announce the launch of the PATH Diagnostic Image Repository, a library of reliable, complete, and ethically sourced diagnostic datasets available for digital health technology developers and manufacturers who are committed to advancing health equity.
This scalable, user-friendly, and secure library of rapid diagnostic test (RDT) images and related metadata is now available to users agreeing to global access commitments. With carefully managed permissions and access controls, users can access, export, and leverage diagnostic datasets while maintaining privacy and standards.
Access to this information can enable our partners to develop digital health technologies, such as digital readers and machine learning algorithms that support test result interpretation (i.e., controlled images taken under varying conditions can be used to train computer vision models) and digital connectivity, to improve access to and quality of appropriate, point-of-care diagnostic systems in low-resource settings.
The PATH Diagnostic Image Repository currently offers images of COVID-19 and HIV RDTs, with more disease areas and diagnostic test types under consideration for future additions. To date, the COVID-19 dataset contains 32,000 images and associated metadata, including a library of 24,000 images to train machine learning algorithms, with approximately 8,000 additional images available for algorithm validation. The dataset contains images of 1,397 unique RDTs with 25 different attributes associated with each image, including various lighting conditions, sample concentrations, and backgrounds. Images in the COVID-19 dataset were taken using various mobile devices chosen to represent the image quality available in low-resource settings. The HIV dataset contains 11,250 images, each with an accompanying annotation file containing 12 attributes.
To access the image repository or to learn how to donate diagnostic images and metadata to this effort, please email dximagerepo@path.org.