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Informatics

Intelerad Becomes the Image Exchange Leader

Radiology took a giant step towards actually #ditchingthedisk last week with Intelerad’s acquisition of image exchange rival, Life Image. Here’s why this could be a big deal…

Exchange Leadership – Acquiring Life Image makes Intelerad the “clear medical image exchange market leader,” combining two of the top three exchange companies (the other is Nuance), and creating a far more straightforward roadmap towards building a “true nation-wide, electronic image exchange network.”

Demand & Supply – Although imaging vendors always position their acquisitions as patient or clinician-centric (even if it’s debatable), this move actually does address one of radiology’s most glaring problems — it’s far too difficult for providers to share images with each other if they don’t use the same exchange platform.

The Exchange Network Effect – Because the clinical value of image exchanges multiplies as vendor market share increases, Intelerad now has a network effect advantage that you almost never see in medical imaging. If this deal increased Intelerad’s image exchange share to 70% (hypothetically), it would make Intelerad far more valuable to its current clients and far more attractive to its remaining prospects.

Defining “Open” – The announcement alluded to the creation of an “open” image exchange, which is consistent with Ambra/Intelerad’s philosophy. However, it’s unclear how or when that will happen – or whether Nuance and other competitors will decide to join.

Intelerad = Acquirer – This deal also solidifies Intelerad’s title as imaging informatics’ most active acquirer, buying at least seven companies in the last two years that expanded it into new clinical areas (cardiac, OB/GYN), regions (UK), technologies (cloud), and functionalities (image sharing, reporting, cloud VNA). 

The Takeaway

Intelerad’s combined Ambra and Life Image acquisitions should make it the undisputed leader of the image exchange segment. That’s a big deal considering that the value of image exchange software multiplies as market share increases, and because it could actually allow Intelerad to solve (not just improve) one of radiology’s most frustrating challenges.

Creating Your AI Platform Strategy

Adopting a platform strategy can simplify the deployment and management of imaging applications and AI algorithms, but there’s a lot to consider. In this eBook, Blackford Analysis and its clients detail how AI platforms can benefit clinical and IT teams, and share guidelines to consider when selecting a platform.

ETMC and Bayer’s Contrast Reduction

See how East Texas Medical Center reduced its abdominal CT contrast volumes by 30% after adopting Bayer Radiology’s contrast dose management software.

The Wire

• Dear Medical Students: A new paper in Current Problems in Diagnostic Radiology directly addressed medical students’ concerns about AI’s impact on radiology, suggesting that they have been influenced by “misinformation,” and countering that AI will actually make radiology “a more attractive specialty.” The authors argued that AI will make radiologists more efficient, reduce burnout, improve accuracy, and increase its overall impact on healthcare. Uncoincidentally, this paper comes out a few weeks after another study provided solid evidence that more med students are deciding against becoming radiologists due to AI concerns. 

• RadioPharm & MD Anderson’s Theranostics Venture: MD Anderson Cancer Center and RadioPharm Theranostics announced the creation of Radiopharm Ventures LLC, which will co-develop radiopharmaceutical cancer therapeutics. The joint venture will integrate MD Anderson’s proprietary technologies in antigen discovery and molecular imaging with RadioPharm’s experience in radiopharmaceuticals development, initially focusing on creating at least four therapeutic products.

• Self-Taught CXR AI: Harvard Medical researchers developed a self-supervised AI model (trained w/ unannotated images) that detected pathologies in chest X-rays with similar accuracy as radiologists. The researchers trained their CheXzeo model on 377k unannotated CXRs and 227k corresponding radiology reports, and tested it on two external CXR data sets, finding that the model was able to accurately detect conditions such as pneumonia, collapsed lungs, and lesions. There have been other self-supervised CXR AI models, but CheXzeo is the best performing, and provides the greatest assurance that AI might not face as big of an annotation barrier as some believe.

• FDG-PET Prediction Impact: A study in JNCCN revealed that FDG-PET can predict pancreatic cancer patients’ response to neoadjuvant therapy, aiding providers’ therapy and treatment decisions. Among 202 patients with borderline resectable/locally advanced pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, preoperative FDG-PET (w/ CT or MRI) was superior to biochemical assessments for predicting major pathologic response to the therapy (AUCs: 0.86 vs. 0.75).

• Neusoft’s IPO Do-Over: Neusoft Medical is planning to seek an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after several failed attempts to join Shanghai’s STAR Market and the Hong Kong Exchange (in 2020 & 2021). However, market watchers suggest that Neusoft’s hopeful Hong Kong IPO might see similar challenges due to its low-end modality focus, lagging R&D investments, and rising costs. 

• Radiographer Mammogram Reads: A Radiology study out of the UK found that radiographers performed comparably to radiologists in double reading screening mammograms. The study included 401 readers (224 radiologists, 177 radiographers) who double-read 1.4M screening mammograms, finding no significant differences between radiologists and radiographers’ cancer detection rates (7.84 vs 7.53 per 1k exams), recall rates (5.0% vs. 5.2%), and positive predictive value (17.1% vs. 16.1%). Although it’s common for radiographers to handle some interpretation duties in the UK, this study raised concerns among US-based rads.

• Subtle Medical’s GSA: Subtle Medical landed a spot on the US federal government’s GSA Multiple Awards Schedule, making its SubtleMR and SubtlePET image reconstruction solutions available to the VA and other government institutions. Given the VA’s massive scanner installed base, and its focus on efficiency and patient experience, SubtleMR and SubtlePET might find a solid fit in veteran care.

• Photon-Counting CT Plaque Characterization: A new study out of Switzerland highlighted photon-counting CT technology’s (PCD-CT, an emerging CT tech) advantage over standard CT for coronary plaque characterization. Researchers analyzed exams from 20 coronary syndrome patients undergoing ECG-gated coronary CT angiography (w/ PCD-CT), finding that PCD-CT reduced blooming artifacts, allowing for improved visualization of fibrotic and lipid-rich plaque components in ultra-high contrast mode.

• At-Home BCa Biomarker Test: Namida Lab announced the launch of its Auria at-home diagnostic test, which uses tears to identify protein biomarkers related to breast abnormalities. Targeted at women with low to average breast cancer risk, Auria provides a personalized score that tells women how soon they should schedule a mammogram. Although we’ve never seen a test like this, Auria joins a growing field of biomarker and home tests that might impact image-based screenings.

• Cardiac POCUS Fast Learners: An Indiana University study found that after a brief training session (video + 10min hands-on lesson), medical students with little cardiac POCUS experience were able to perform common exams. Among 132 second-year medical students who completed the training, 72% obtained PSLA cardiac views without instructor guidance and 62% were able to identify pericardial effusion and diagnose cardiac tamponade (all with simulated patients).

• Prostate MRI Variability: A new analysis in AJR showed that the cost of prostate MRI exams can vary widely depending on the healthcare facility. Researchers analyzed 37,073 prostate MRI exams conducted at 552 US facilities, finding that the median charge per exam was $4,419, with a 26-fold variation between the lowest and highest ($593 to $15,150).

Reducing Burnout with Workflow Optimization

It’s no secret that radiologists are increasingly burned out, but there are technology-based solutions to this problem. Check out this GE Healthcare report detailing how a workload optimization engine can boost radiologists productivity and reduce burnout.

Imagix Makes the Move to Intelerad

After years of expansion, Montreal’s Imagix Radiology moved to Intelerad, allowing it to unify and modernize its radiology IT infrastructure, while improving its efficiency and data exchange capabilities. See what Imagix had to say about making the move to Intelerad here.

The Resource Wire

• Explore how United Imaging is reinventing the medical imaging business, including downtime rebates, lifetime upgrades, and making sure their customers truly are successful.

• Is your organization ready to move enterprise imaging to the cloud? Check out this Change Healthcare and ACHE webinar detailing cloud-native imaging’s benefits, best practices, and ROI.

• Ready for the patient, clinical, and business benefits of in-office MRI exams? See why Siemens Healthineers’ MAGNETOM Free.Max’s 80cm bore, compact footprint, and cryogen-free design allows orthopedic practices to adopt a complete, in-office MRI solution.

• See how Us2.ai cuts echocardiography’s manual work, subjectivity, and turnaround times to automate the fight against heart disease.

• Ready to improve your mammography workflows? Arterys is the first and only cloud-native Breast AI provider, and its solution dramatically reduces 3D Mammography reading times, while supporting breast cancer detection, density measurements, and personalized risk assessments.  

• After setting ambitious regulatory and commercialization goals, Lunit leveraged CARPL.ai’s platform and operational guidance to complete the clinical trials needed for its INSIGHT CXR and MMG AI tools’ FDA clearances.

• An image sharing starting point – Imaging providers who want to finally #ditchthedisk can now start off with Novarad’s CryptoChart Lite solution, a no-cost version of CryptoChart built for providers transitioning to imaging sharing.

• Considering your short and long-term AI plan? Check out Canon Medical’s State of AI Roundtable, sharing insights into how imaging AI is being used, where it’s needed most, and how AI might assume a core role in medical imaging.

• Hyperfine’s MRI accessibility advantage doesn’t stop at image acquisition. See how Hyperfine’s BrainInsight AI tools give clinicians the quantitative biomarker information needed to streamline patient care and reduce the burden of manual brain MRI measurements.

• Check out this Imaging Wire Show interview with Riverain Technology’s Chief Science Officer, Jason Knapp, where we discuss the evolution of imaging AI, how to get generalizability right, AI’s path forward, and much more.

• Wondering when someone will finally develop AI to address hanging protocol issues? The Enlitic Curie platform uses a standard imaging lexicon and a sophisticated algorithm to standardize DICOM metadata, making hanging protocols and automatic comparisons more consistent, and allowing radiologists to focus on image interpretation.

• Curious how certain your AI is about its own finding? annalise.ai’s confidence bar displays the likelihood of each finding and the AI model’s level of certainty, helping clinicians perform their interpretations with greater confidence.