Research team working to plug gaps in COVID-19 testing
Date - 28th March 2020 at North Eastern Hill University, Shillong

T-Ray Thermography Procedures

T-Ray Thermography: A potential alternative to Thermal Infrared scanners and CT imaging for early detection and safe monitoring of nCOVID19 Patients – A major technological breakthrough research by Indian scientists

With a very limited supply of COVID-19 test -kits in India and rest of the world, people with mild symptoms are less likely to be tested. This leaves many people in the dark as to whether cold-like symptoms are just the sniffles, or a mild case of novel coronavirus making them potential source of spreading the contagious virus in the society.

Thermal screening or Infrared based devices which are presently being adopted for temperature sensing at airports, railway stations and for surveillance in institutions have major limitations in accurately identifying asymptomatic individuals carrying the virus and such cases go undetected.

Therefore, to address the issue an alternative is required. To prevent spread of any infectious communicable disease, an early disease diagnosis and monitoring is important not only for prompt implementation of treatment, but also for patient isolation and effective public health surveillance, containment to avoid spread of contagious disease and ensuring quick medical response.

To detect the virus at an early stage and help in isolating such individuals by following the principle of social distancing or self-quarantine at their homes for a period of fourteen to twenty days may help in preventing spread of this severe communicable disease. Near ‘patient care’ or near POC assays that test for SARS-CoV-2 are currently in the development stage and are awaiting approval by different regulatory agencies in the form of a EUA or CE-IVD certification.

The potential of non-ionizing Terahertz radiation (T-Ray) imaging applied for biomedical domain is presently a new field of research worldwide.

The fundamental physics behind the bio-medical diagnosis with T-Ray depends on the distribution of water contents in cell and bio-molecules which could be employed for screening of body organs such as lungs for diagnosing respiratory infections. The application of Terahertz imaging tool in such investigations has not yet been employed by any research group.

Since Terahertz is non-ionizing in nature, its repetitive use in scanning / imaging for screening and monitoring will be harmless to the population and its users such doctors, paramedical staff and other security staff in the vicinity in comparison to using X Ray or CT scan device as both are considered to be ionizing in nature and can cause cancer if repeatedly used for testing on nCOVID patients in future.

The use of THz device will be more effective in getting desired reliable information compared to the existing thermal scanners and is considered as the most exciting application offered by the terahertz technology due to its size, ease, cost-effectiveness, and portability of terahertz-imaging unit.

Indian researchers
Dr. Moumita Mukherjee,
Associate Dean, Adamas University (Kolkata), & formerly associated with DRDO centre and
Dr. Dinesh Bhatia,
Associate Professor- Biomedical Engineering Department of North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Shillong
and their collaborative research group is working actively in developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) based T-Ray scanning unit to address the limitation of infrared thermal scanner in accurate and early detection of nCOVID-19 patients.

As per Mukherjee & Bhatia, the unique absorption fingerprint of T-Ray radiation in lungs and the contrast thermal image of affected and healthy lungs will help the doctors and the paramedical staff to identify such cases at an early stage, when the patient is apparently asymptomatic and not showing any virus symptoms.

The product will be cost-effective, allowing quick diagnosis with accurate in screening and monitoring of mass population. Their extensive research is showing a ray of hope in easy identification followed by safe monitoring of nCOVID 19 patients worldwide. They acknowledge the support of their respective institutions for providing desired support to carry out this research.

For details, please contact:

(L) Dr. Dinesh Bhatia ; (R) Dr. Moumita Mukherjee

Dr. Dinesh Bhatia
Associate Professor-
Biomedical Engineering Department of North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Shillong
Address: NEHU, Shillong
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://nehu.ac.in/faculty/display/342

Dr. Moumita Mukherjee
Associate Dean, Adamas University (Kolkata), & formerly associated with DRDO centre, India
Address: Adamas University, Kolkata.
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://science.adamasuniversity.ac.in/dt_team/dr-moumita-mukherjee/