Researchers at NCI have developed an artificial intelligence approach called automated visual evaluation (AVE) that can analyze digital images of a woman’s cervix and accurately identify precancerous changes that require medical attention. The images can be taken with a cell phone or similar device outfitted with a camera, making this approach potentially useful for cervical screening in low-resource settings.
Another improvement that may be of particular importance where healthcare resources are limited is the ability to do self-sampling. Studies have found that HPV testing on samples collected by patients themselves is as accurate as testing on samples collected by providers.