MGH’s Kenneth Rosenfield, MD on Viz.ai adding RV/LV ratio analysis to its PE AI solution.

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Artificial Intelligence

Viz.ai Adds PE Stratification

Viz.ai announced the FDA clearance of its new RV/LV ratio algorithm, adding an important risk stratification feature to its pulmonary embolism AI module, while representing an interesting example of how triage AI solutions might evolve.

Triage + Stratification + Coordination – Viz PE becomes far more comprehensive with its new RV/LV integration, helping radiologists detect/prioritize PE cases and assess right heart strain (a major cause of PE mortality), while equipping PE response teams with more actionable information. 

• This addition might also improve clinicians’ experience with Viz PE, noting the risk of developing AI “alert fatigue” when all severity levels are treated the same.

Viz.ai is So On-Trend – Signify Research recently forecast that AI leaders will increasingly expand into new clinical segments, enhance their current solutions, and leverage platform / marketplace strategies, as AI evolves from point solutions to comprehensive workflows. Those trends are certainly evident within Viz.ai’s recent PE strategy…

• Viz PE’s late 2021 launch was a key step in Viz.ai’s expansion beyond neuro/stroke
• Adding RV/LV risk stratification certainly enhances Viz PE’s detection capabilities
• Viz PE was developed by Avicenna.AI, arguably making Viz.ai a platform vendor
• Viz PE’s workflow now combines detection, assessment, and care coordination

The same could be said for Aidoc, which previously added Imbio’s RV/LV algorithm to its PE AI solution (and also supports incidental PE), although few other triage AI workflows are this advanced for PE or other clinical areas.

The Takeaway

Viz.ai’s PE and RV/LV integration is a great example of how detection-focused AI tools can evolve through risk/severity stratification and workflow integration — and it might prove to be a key step in Viz.ai’s expansion beyond stroke AI.

SJRA Unifies with Intelerad

Faced with two aging legacy PACS systems, South Jersey Radiology Associates moved to Intelerad’s IntelePACS, allowing its 12 sites to operate as a single, more-efficient entity. See how SJRA has since improved its radiologist efficiency by 8% to 10% and achieved a unified experience across its locations.

GE’s Efficient and Effective AI tools

Learn how GE Healthcare’s growing suite of homegrown and partner AI tools can boost radiology efficiency and effectiveness in its latest post.

The Wire

• Liver Cancer Blood Test: Cedars-Sinai investigators developed a hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) blood test that could allow earlier HCC detection and improve patient access compared to ultrasound-led screening. The blood test detected ~90% of HCC patients in a recent Phase II study (n = 106 & 72), setting the stage for larger validation trials and potentially clinical adoption. Cedars-Sinai’s liver cancer test is another sign that blood-based cancer screening is gaining momentum, joining lung cancer tests from MGH and MD Anderson and the ongoing Multi-Cancer Early Detection study.

• Lunit INSIGHT CXR’s Accuracy & Efficiency: A JAMA study highlighted Lunit INSIGHT CXR’s ability to improve radiologists’ chest X-ray interpretation accuracy and efficiency. Six radiologists of varying experience interpreted 407 exams with and without INSIGHT CXR, finding that AI assistance improved the radiologists’ sensitivity for detecting lung nodules (62.9% vs. 56.7%), pneumonia (71.9% vs. 67.3%), pleural effusion (89.5% vs. 88.9%), and pneumothorax (96.5% vs. 79.2%). The solution also cut the rads’ interpretation times by 10% (40.8 vs 36.9 seconds)

• Sectra Expands to Genomics IT: Sectra announced the launch of its new Genomics IT business unit, as the company works towards its goal to create an integrated multi-diagnostics platform. Sectra will collaborate with the University of Pennsylvania Health System to develop its genomics IT solution, which will become part of its enterprise imaging portfolio (joining radiology, cardiology, pathology, orthopedics, and ophthalmology).

• Detecting “Hot” Arteries: Researchers successfully used a novel PET-CT technique to predict which heart attack patients were most likely to experience a recurrent event. The researchers leveraged an inflammation-binding PET tracer (18F-NaF) to highlight “hot” coronary arterial plaque in 704 patients with recent MI and multivessel disease. Compared with patients with “cold” arteries (inactive disease), those with hot arteries were almost 2.5 times more likely to die of any cause, and 82% more likely to experience coronary heart disease death or another heart attack.

• Canadian Mammogram Review: Canadian health officials will review more than 16k mammograms performed in Newfoundland and Labrador since 2018, after a recent audit found that some health systems were reading screening mammograms with substandard 3-megapixel monitors (vs. 5-megapixel standard). Of 837 exams already reviewed, an initial auditing radiologist found four “potential discrepancies or differing interpretations,” prompting officials to consider enlisting more radiologists from surrounding areas.

• AI4CMR’s US & UK Clearances: AI4CMR is on a regulatory hot streak, after its cardiac MRI AI solution gained FDA 510k clearance and UKCA Marking (UK’s post-Brexit regulatory mark). It was already CE Marked. The AI4CMR solution automatically segments and interprets CMRI exams, quantifies various CMRI parameters, and identifies cases with suspicious left and right ventricle wall motion.

• Surveillance AB-MRI Beats DBT: A study out of South Korea found that abbreviated breast MRI (AB-MRI) detected cancer at a far higher rate than digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) among women with a personal history of breast cancer. Researchers analyzed AB-MRI and DBT surveillance exams from 471 postoperative women (w/ 11 malignancies), finding that AB-MRI detected all 11 malignancies while DBT detected 6 (CDRs: 23.4 vs. 12.7 per 1k women). 

• Hospital Margins in for a Rough Q4: July’s hospital margin update from Kaufman Hall is in, and it’s tough to describe the results as anything but bleak. Median operating margins plummeted to -0.98%, revenue dropped 4.8%, and labor expenses climbed 3.5% since June. Persistent labor shortages and a growing number of patients choosing ambulatory centers for surgical procedures helped reverse any margin gains made in recent months, causing Kaufman Hall to warn health systems not to lose sight of long-term capital planning despite the urgency of day-to-day pressures.

• Echo AI Superiority: A Cedars-Sinai team developed and tested an ultrasound AI system that was able to measure cardiac function more effectively than veteran sonographers (14yr avg. tenure). Cedars-Sinai cardiologists evaluated 3,495 transthoracic echo ejection fraction reports that were either generated by AI or sonographers, making corrections to a smaller share of the AI-based reports than the sonographer reports (16.8% vs. 27.2%) and finding that AI ejection fraction readings were closer to actual EF measurements (2.8 vs. 3.8 avg. pct point variation).

• Bridging the BCa Screening Digital Divide: A new study in Radiology encouraged mammography practices to continue supporting pre-digital communications, warning that digital scheduling and patient portals can exacerbate breast cancer screening disparities. The survey of 7.2k women revealed that only 18% used a computer to schedule screening appointments, while 70% of the women who scheduled via computer were White, insured, and college educated.

• BrainKey Adds fMRI: BrainKey added fMRI to its unique AI-based brain health analysis platform, joining its existing brain MRI, genetics, and demographic analysis capabilities. The BrainKey Platform produces reports that help individuals understand their brain health (w/ longitudinal brain MRI and fMRI) and the factors influencing their future brain longevity (w/ genetics and demographics), potentially allowing early detection and personalized treatments.

Blackford’s AI Value Matrix

Working out your AI business case? Check out this helpful Blackford Analysis post detailing how to create your AI Value Matrix based on your organizational objectives and value indicators.

Exploring Calantic Digital Solutions

Bayer’s cloud-based Calantic Digital Solutions AI platform features a suite of disease-specific AI apps that integrate into radiologist workflows, helping radiology teams scale AI deployment and improve efficiency and quality of care.

The Resource Wire

• Did you know one quarter of healthcare organizations have experienced a cyber-attack in the last year? This Change Healthcare animation explains how 3rd-party certified cloud-native enterprise imaging can help secure IT infrastructure that might be exposed with re-platformed imaging systems.

• MRI is a powerful modality, but still inaccessible to many providers and patients. See how Siemens Healthineers’ MAGNETOM Free.Star’s disruptively simple approach is breaking MRI barriers.

• See why radiologist Dr. Eleanna Saloura called Arterys’ Lung AI solution “a fast and reliable second opinion” for chest CT lung nodule analysis and tracking, allowing “more accurate diagnostic and treatment decisions.”

• Take the AiCE challenge and see why half the radiologists in a recent study “had difficulty differentiating” images from Canon Medical Systems’ Vantage Orian 1.5T MR using its AiCE reconstruction technology compared to standard 3T MRI images.

• When SyntheticMR validated its SyMRI MSK solution, they leveraged the CARPL platform to compare conventional knee and spine MRI image quality with SyntheticMR images. Check out their validation process and results here.

• Check out this Imaging Wire Show featuring Novarad founder and CEO, Wendell Gibby, MD, exploring Novarad’s technological evolution and how its recent augmented reality expansion is bringing medical imaging into completely new clinical settings.

• Learn about how Us2.ai is bringing simplicity and clarity to the world of cardiac ultrasound, on the latest episode of The Bleeding Edge of Digital Health featuring Us2.ai’s founders, James Hare and Dr. Carolyn Lam.

• See how United Imaging’s fresh approach, vertically integrated structure, and unique “all-in” strategy is raising the bar in medical imaging. 

• Hyperfine’s Swoop Portable MR Imaging System might look like hardware, but its deep learning-based image reconstruction pipeline is what makes the MRI’s point-of-care performance possible. See how Hyperfine’s reconstruction technology improves image quality, while allowing advanced gridding and denoising.

• Ready to solve your hanging protocol consistency problem? Join Enlitic on September 8th to see how data routing can address one of radiology’s biggest frustrations.

• annalise.ai’s Annalise CXR solution detects up to 124 findings in a single chest X-ray. See how it detects such a wide range of abnormalities using these demo studies…  or upload your own CXR images.

• This Riverain Technologies case study details how Duke University Medical Center integrated ClearRead CT into its chest CT workflows, reducing read times by 26% and improving nodule detection by 29%.