AUTHOR=Shamsunder Saritha , Digumarti Leela , Nayak Bhagyalaxmi , Dasari Vasantha , Mishra Archana , Kumar Anita , Nanda Sony , Kishore Jugal , Choudhary Nishi 
  
TITLE=Bringing Cervical Cancer Screening Closer to Women: Feasibility of Artificial Intelligence and Remote Assessment in Primary Health Care
  
JOURNAL=International Journal of Public Health
  
VOLUME=Volume 71 - 2026
  
YEAR=2026
  
URL=https://www.ssph-journal.org/journals/international-journal-of-public-health/articles/10.3389/ijph.2026.1609094
  
DOI=10.3389/ijph.2026.1609094
  
ISSN=1661-8564
  
ABSTRACT=ObjectiveThe objective was to assess the feasibility of image-based methods for screening and triaging women in a single visit by: (i) a trained but inexperienced nurse, (ii) remote expert review via a web system, (iii) an artificial intelligence (AI) model.MethodsSexually active, non-pregnant women (25–65 years) were screened using visual inspection method Cervical images captured with Smart Scope® CX were assessed independently by nurses, remote experts, and AI, with assessors blinded to each other. Referrals for colposcopy were based on remote expert evaluations followed by colposcopy/biopsy.ResultsAmong 871 women screened, AI identified 205 positives; experts identified 201. Colposcopy was performed on 69 women, 40 of them had a biopsy. Compared to histopathology, AI achieved 86.7% sensitivity, 92.0% specificity, and 90.0% accuracy (AUC = 0.894). Remote experts showed high sensitivity (86.7%) but low specificity (32%) and accuracy (52.5%).ConclusionThis study provides proof of concept for the feasibility of the AI-driven Smart Scope® CX test as a single-visit “screen-and-triage” tool in primary healthcare settings. Additionally, remote expert assessment demonstrating performance comparable to colposcopy indicates its potential as an alternative triage method in low-resource settings.