CareMaps-AI

Selecting the embryo with the most potential is one of the most important elements in IVF treatment. Caremaps-AI®, our time-lapse imaging technique powered by artificial intelligence, has been designed to help us choose the embryo with the most potential without genetic testing.

CareMaps-AI Embryo Selection

Care Fertility scientists have undertaken extensive research for over a decade to improve the accuracy of embryo selection. This resulted in models, or algorithms to select embryos with the highest chance of becoming a baby. Care’s work in this area has been widely published and our latest development uses Machine Learning to analyse embryo development from fertilisation right up to the point of embryo transfer.

Caremaps-AI® time-lapse embryo imaging is unique to Care and is available at all our clinics.

How did Care produce an artificial intelligence tool (Caremaps-AI®) to analyse embryo development to predict the chance of a birth?

Because we have a large group of clinics performing the same high-tech embryology, we collated almost half a billion images, from over 60,000 embryos, from our time lapse incubators and trained a machine learning model to assess them accurately and automatically.

Could Caremaps-AI® be right for me?

Caremaps-AI® time-lapse embryo imaging is an additional procedure available to all our patients. It is a non invasive technique which is used to make our routine embryo selection process even more effective. Thousands of babies have been born following treatment which included Caremaps-AI®.

Benefits of Caremaps-AI®

Powered by AI to enable the very best embryo selection, combined with the best closed incubation environment and 12 years of timelapse experience, all delivered by some of the world’s best embryologists.
Our scientists are world-leaders in time-lapse technology, and our Caremaps-AI® technique is highly developed; we’ve innovated models that can help us more reliably select the highest quality embryos, allowing us to see whether each has a low, medium, or high chance of success.
Embryo assessment using Machine Learning, when trained on large high-quality data, is more accurate and consistent than the assessments made by humans.
It is estimated that an embryologist with 10 years’ training and experience may have experience from assessing approximately 10,000 embryos over a decade. Caremaps-AI® was trained on over 60,000 embryos and almost half a billion images of those embryos.
Higher birth rates than standard methods, as Caremaps-AI® gives better embryo selection, allowing embryologists to see which embryos have the best chance of producing a baby.

Key points

Removes any human subjectivity
More detailed information than standard incubation methods, cell division timings and embryo development patterns are recorded using time-lapse images.
Full Timelapse video image files in 7 focal planes
Half a billion images to develop Machine Learning model

Are there any risks?

This technology is safe and non invasive. It assesses images of embryos which are already being collected and the model was trained on Care’s own extensive high quality data. There is increasing evidence supporting the application of Machine Learning to utilise big data from time-lapse imaging and fertility care generally. Whilst promising benefits to IVF patients, responsible use of data is required alongside large high-quality datasets, and rigorous validation, to ensure safe and robust applications.

HFEA Comment: Is CareMaps-AI effective?

The independent regulator of fertility treatment, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), has developed a ‘red-amber-green’ rating system and provides information on their website about treatments that are offered on top of your routine fertility treatment – known as treatment add-ons. They consider that the only way to be confident that a treatment is effective enough to be used routinely is to carry out a randomised controlled trial (RCT). In an RCT, patients are assigned randomly to two groups: a treatment group, given the new treatment and a control group, given a well-tried treatment or a placebo.

The HFEA has given time-lapse imaging an amber rating because although there have been studies looking at whether time-lapse imaging can improve birth rates, they don’t consider that there is enough evidence from RCTs to prove that time-lapse imaging improves your chance of having a baby.

It is important to consider though that CareMaps combines time-lapse imaging with the use of Care’s unique embryo ranking model. Care’s own data from a study published in 2017 of more than 23,000 treatment cycles showed a highly significant increase in births when CareMaps was used to select embryos for patients aged younger than 38 using their own eggs. A paper published by Care in 2019 showed that CareMaps is superior for selecting embryos most likely to result in a birth than standard selection methods.