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The University of Otago s youngest medical student has passed his first course with flying colours.
Levi, a German shepherd in training as a medical detection dog, is flanked by Pauline Blomfield of K9 Medical Detection NZ (left) and University of Otago Biostatistics Centre director Robin Turner.
Photo: Otago Daily Times / Sharon Bennett
Levi, a two-and-a-half-year-old German shepherd, has been achieving A+ results in his early training as a medical detection dog, learning how to sniff out bowel cancer.
During initial scent-imprint training Levi detected positive cancer samples 92.8 percent of the time, and ignored samples that did not contain cancer 99.8 percent of the time.
German shepherd sniffing out bowel cancer as part of new research
14 Dec, 2020 05:00 PM
4 minutes to read
Pauline Blomfield (left) and Robin Turner (right) with Levi the German shepherd. Photo / Supplied
NZ Herald
The future of medical detection in New Zealand has taken a leap forward with a German shepherd successfully sniffing out bowel cancer.
The University of Otago and K9 Medical Detection NZ have teamed up on New Zealand-first research to investigate using dogs as a diagnostic tool to sniff out bowel cancer.
It is one of New Zealand s most commonly diagnosed cancers.
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He is still in training but is detecting positive cancer samples 92.8 per cent of the time, and ignoring samples that did not contact cancer 99.8 per cent of the time.