BALTIMORE — Cervical cancer, like many illnesses, is treatable if it’s caught early, but each year millions of women miss out on getting routine Pap smear screening for the disease, which kills a disproportionate number of Black women.
During the pandemic, cervical cancer screening rates got even worse, especially for lower-income women and women of racial and ethnic minority groups.
A group of recent graduates from Johns Hopkins Carey Business School think a solution to this problem could be rooted in artificial intelligence. For a class they took last fall, they developed a concept for a “smart tampon,” an at-home cervical test they hope would make screening for the disease more accessible and ultimately decrease disparities.
