- Sirona Launches RadOS: Sirona Medical officially launched its RadOS Workspace, which unifies core radiology IT components within a single cloud-native platform (worklist, viewer, reporter, AI), in order to simplify radiologist workflows and streamline AI adoption. Sirona emerged this summer with the ambitious goal of disrupting the radiology IT establishment. That level of disruption doesn’t come easy, but Sirona is now armed with an active product, a solid message, some influential board members/advisors, and $60m in funding to help make it happen.
- Radiology’s Computer Vision Problem: A new study out of Saudi Arabia (n = 416) revealed high rates of computer vision syndrome (CVS) among the country’s radiologists. The survey revealed that 65% of rads suffer from CVS (31% moderate or severe), with higher rates among female radiologists and rads who wear glasses. The surveyed radiologists spent an average of 34 hours in front of their PACS monitor each week, plus 28 hours using other devices (e.g. smartphones, PCs, tablets) and another 7 hours watching TV.
- Philips’ Angio Spectral CT: Philips’ RSNA booth included the world’s first spectral angio-CT system, bringing the company’s spectral CT tech into the interventional suite. The new system combines Philips’ Spectral CT 7500 system (for spectral imaging) and the company’s Azurion with FlexArm Image-Guided Therapy System (for real-time fluoroscopy), allowing interventionalists to perform procedures requiring CT and/or angio guidance in one room.
- Hybrid PET/MR’s Epilepsy Advantage: A new study in Epilepsy Research suggests that hybrid PET/MR may improve epileptogenic lesion detection and could lead to more accurate presurgical work-ups and better surgical outcomes. The researchers compared 18F-FDG PET/MR images with co-registered PET and MR images (PET+MR) from 25 patients with focal drug-resistant epilepsy. Interpretations from two blinded physicians showed that the PET/MR exams had 13% higher sensitivity, detected six additional structural lesions, and led to “substantial” surgical decision-making changes with 10 of the patients.
- Konica Minolta’s New Mobile X-Ray: Konica Minolta launched its new mKDR Xpress Mobile X-ray System and its compatible AeroDR Carbon Flat Panel Detector, highlighting the mKDR Xpress’ portability and ease of use and the AeroDR Carbon’s combination of image quality and durability.
- Radiologist Malpractice: A new Medscape survey (n = ~4,300) revealed that 64% of U.S. radiologists have been named in a malpractice lawsuit, making it the 9th most-sued specialty, but well behind plastic and general surgeons (both 83%). Malpractice cases were most commonly due to alleged missed or delayed diagnoses (31%), treatment complications (29%), and unfavorable outcomes (26%)
- LifeVoxel.AI’s Seed Round: Diagnostic visualization startup LifeVoxel.AI completed a $5m seed round that it will use to fund the development and commercialization of its Prescient platform. The 510k-approved cloud platform allows instant access to imaging studies (reports, annotations, data) from any web-based device, supporting both physician diagnostics and remote patient engagement. LifeVoxel.AI also plans to develop diagnostic AI tools that it will make available through the Prescient platform.
- GE & Optellum’s Lung Nodule AI Alliance: GE Healthcare and Optellum announced a new alliance that will integrate Optellum’s Virtual Nodule Clinic (AI-based malignancy assessments) with other AI solutions on GE Healthcare’s Edison platform, bring results from Optellum’s Lung Cancer Prediction AI into existing GE Healthcare workflows, and lead to sales/distribution collaborations between the two companies.
- Flawed Research & Flawed Policies: An editorial in the Journal of Medical Screening warned that thousands of Canadian women may have died of breast cancer because a pair of flawed 1980s trials influenced the country’s policy to begin screening at 50 years old. The paper suggests that the trials’ pre-screening step led to more women with signs of breast cancer being placed into mammography screening trial groups, which influenced the studies’ conclusions that screening doesn’t benefit 40-49yr old women.
- Lunit’s Pre-IPO Funding: Lunit raised another $61m, increasing its fundraising total to $135m just a few months before its IPO on the South Korean stock market. Like Lunit’s July 2021 investment from Guardant Health, the company emphasized how its latest investors’ healthcare/life science influence and experience will help establish Lunit’s role in cancer detection and treatment.
- IBM’s New Orchestrators: IBM Watson Health announced its new Imaging AI Orchestrator and Imaging Workflow Orchestrator with Watson solutions at RSNA 2021. Imaging AI Orchestrator is a cloud-based AI service that provides access to a number of partner AI apps within radiology reading workflows, adding IBM to the growing list of PACS providers to integrate 3rd party AI apps. The new Imaging Workflow Orchestrator with Watson solution consolidates studies, patient data, and AI results into a single interface to improve reading and imaging IT efficiency.
- Philips Integrates MedChat: Philips integrated MedChat into its Patient Navigation Manager platform, adding MedChat’s live chat and chatbot services to the platform’s existing communication methods (SMS, email, voice). Philips’ recent launch activity reveals a growing focus on helping providers improve their patient engagement workflows, including Philips’ openDoctor integration earlier this year (patient self-scheduling for imaging appointments).
- Einstein & Within Health Follow-Up: After a successful pilot, Einstein Healthcare announced that it will use Within Health’s follow-up management platform across its entire radiology patient population (400k exams annually). Within Health automates the identification, tracking, and engagement of patients who are at-risk of delayed or missed follow-ups.
