Assisted by funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the University of Manchester is developing software that can automatically outline bones
in X-ray images.

It can already identify hips; the researchers from the university’s Institute of Population Health will now adapt it to map out knees and hands, and then to identify other bones and structures within the body.

Tim Cootes, Professor of Computer Vision, said: “Mapping the outlines of bones from radiographs is hard work that takes time and skill.

When researchers look into conditions like arthritis, they are working with hundreds of images; it’s a very inefficient way of obtaining data. The idea of this software is to take the routine tasks out of human hands, so that scientists can focus on drawing conclusions and developing treatments.

“We have a growing problem with arthritis, which affects more than 30% of over-65s and costs a lot of money. Ultimately, we want to get this technology into hospitals, where it can save time and resources for the benefit of patients.”