A radiologist and technician at Misr Radiology Center review images taken of a patient and discuss protocol for a brain PET/MRI exam.

Wilhelm Röntgen’s discovery of the X-ray in 1895 enabled health care practitioners to “see” inside the body, forever changing the field of medicine. In the past several decades, the growing use of artificial intelligence in the health care sector has made it possible for computer systems and diagnostic machines to learn and problem solve, mimicking human cognitive functions, such as perceiving one’s environment, performing pattern recognition, and planning and executing a course of action.

At Misr Radiology Center (MRC) in Cairo, Egypt, where Doha Tantawy (MBA 2019) serves as chief operating officer (COO), AI has been fully integrated into all of the company’s new diagnostic machines, enhancing the detection and treatment of disorders and diseases, including pulmonary nodules, COVID-19, and brain injuries.

“AI has improved workflow through higher efficiency and has helped us deliver more personalized care, leading to an enhanced patient experience. For instance, the scanner can vary the radiation dose exposure by distinguishing the thicker parts of a person’s body from the thinner areas that need less radiation. This limits exposure and thus, provides a safer and better service to patients,” Tantawy explains. “Also, in whole-body PET/CT exams, a patient’s breathing causes continuous movement of the diaphragm up and down, leading to blurry imaging, but now machines can understand that pattern of breathing and collect the data accordingly to avoid blurring. This results in better image quality and the improved diagnostic accuracy we strive for.”

A PET/CT (Positron Emission Tomography/Computerized Tomography) scanner at MRC helps doctors diagnose diseases and abnormalities.

Augmented Intelligence

The American Medical Association uses the term “augmented intelligence” as a conceptualization of artificial intelligence that focuses on AI’s assistive role, emphasizing that its design enhances human intelligence rather than replaces it. AI—and its subsets of machine learning and deep learning—has been transformative in the field of radiology, propelling it light years beyond Röntgen’s first X-ray image of his wife’s hand. It enables pattern recognition, data analysis that can help predict the likelihood of an illness, and precision imaging that can detect abnormalities not visible to the human eye.

Tantawy says that MRC, founded in 1989, uses advanced technologies to deliver the highest standards of health care in the field of radiodiagnosis, nuclear medicine, and interventional radiology. “Our goal is to offer best-in-class medical service that is unparalleled across Egypt and Africa,” she notes. MRC has recently installed the first PET/MRI machine in Egypt, other African nations, and the Middle East to better diagnose diseases such as cancers, epilepsy, dementia, and musculoskeletal diseases.

Theranostics, a combination of diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to health care delivery, is a new and exciting field of nuclear medicine now offered at MRC, Tantawy says. “It’s a personalized, highly targeted approach to treatment that is based on the presence of receptors on specific tumor cells. We can target these receptors with radioactive material to detect tumor cells with a very high accuracy and also see the distribution of tumors in the body. We then target the same receptors with another radioactive material to treat the cells. This concept is described in nuclear medicine as: ‘If we can see it, then we can kill it.’” Tantawy says that precision medicine leads to better care and saves the patient’s time, money, and effort.

An Ongoing Mission

Now in her second year as COO at MRC, Tantawy is responsible for overseeing operations across MRC and working with the center’s other executives to deliver on strategic and financial results. “I never lose the desire to do more and serve patients better. It never feels like ‘work’ for me. Instead, it feels like an ongoing mission that I’m dedicated to pursuing,” she says.

Tantawy adds that HBS equipped her with the business insights and acumen needed for the role and to reach her goals for the company. “I had always known the ‘what,’ but HBS gave me clarity on the ‘how.’ I came away from the experience with a long business manifesto, which is my silver bullet to unlock potential growth across Africa through a holistic, long-term plan,” she explains.

Tantawy also credits HBS’s Global Opportunity Fellowship (GO: Africa) she received in 2019 and 2020 with providing her the financial assistance that enabled her to return to her native Cairo and further her personal mission.

“The GO: Africa Fellowship has made my work possible at MRC and I’m truly grateful for the presence of such a supportive mechanism for young alums who are igniting their post-MBA careers on the continent,” says Tantawy. “Africa is full of potential and is truly underserved. I believe that it’s of paramount importance for HBS to assist alums willing to endeavor to make a difference here. The potential this support can unlock has no limits.”

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