Author: Stéphanie BELLAVIA

Posted on

Avicenna.AI Partners With UpCare To Deliver Innovative Value Based Solution to Canadian Health Providers

Logo Upcare

Toronto & Marseille – July 27th , 2021 –Medical imaging AI specialist Avicenna.AI today announced a partnership with UpCare Partners & Associates to distribute, deliver and implement a fully integrated stroke detection AI solution for any PACS Platform in Canada.

With this partnership, Avicenna provides UpCare with its FDA-approved CINA Head triage AI solution for neurovascular emergencies, which detects two of the leading causes of stroke – intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) and large vessel occlusion (LVO) – from CT-scan imaging.

Using a combination of deep learning and machine learning technologies, CINA Head automatically detects and prioritizes acute ICH and LVO cases within 20 seconds, seamlessly alerting the radiologist within their existing systems and workflow.

CINA’s ICH detection capability was validated using data from 814 cases conducted at more than 250 imaging centers across the United States, with 96% accuracy, 91.4% sensitivity and 97.5% specificity. The product’s LVO detection capability was validated based on 476 cases, with 97.7% accuracy 97.9% sensitivity and 97.6% specificity.

“Canada is a Leading Country in the world of Neuroscience, the partnership will enrich physicians’ resources for accessing and qualifying Stroke events and ICH seamlessly in a record time; we are always looking to provide our customers with enhanced and expanded imaging capabilities” said Benoit Sai, Co-Founder & CCO, UpCare Partners & Associates. “By adding Avicenna’ proven and validated solutions to our Neuroscience ecosystem, Canadian healthcare providers have access to innovative automated advanced brain imaging technology, allowing them to deliver better patient care.”

Cyril Di Grandi, co-founder and CEO, Avicenna.AI, said, “Our partnership with a Canadian distributor focussing on ecosystems approach toward the continuum of care in the field of neurosciences combined with expertise in medical imaging, medical devices and ai like UpCare Inc is a testament to the excellent accuracy, sensitivity and specificity data that has been gathered during our validation phase. We look forward to working with our new partner to bring the benefits of our AI-powered stroke triage solution to the emergency room and beyond in Canada.”

About UpCare Partners & Associates
Founded in 2019, UpCare Partners & Associates, a Canadian MedTech Company, is the gateway to the Canadian market for start-ups and international OEM. The company provides the best expertise in each field by committing special attention and a focussed approach to your product on a Pan Canada basis. In this challenging time for Healthcare Institutions UpCare Partners & Associates works with its partners on Value Based Solutions for the best Patient Outcome and Continuum of Care. www.upcarepartners.com

Posted on

Viz.ai and Avicenna.AI Partner to Launch World-class AI-Driven Intelligent Care Coordination for Pulmonary Embolism and Aortic Disease

Logo Viz

SAN FRANCISCO and PARIS – July 15, 2021 – Viz.ai, the world leader in AI-driven intelligent care coordination has partnered with Avicenna.AI, a global leader in artificial intelligence solutions, to enable intelligent care coordination and improve patient triage of patients suffering from pulmonary embolism (PE) and aortic disease (AD). The collaboration will pave the way for faster clinical decision making and care for patients suffering from these two life threatening conditions.

Diagnosis and care coordination of patients suffering from PE and aortic disease can be challenging. Avicenna.AI’s FDA-approved algorithms for PE and Type A and Type B aortic dissection (AD), leveraged on the Viz intelligent care coordination platform, will empower multidisciplinary care teams to easily coordinate patient care by sending notifications paired with dynamic imaging and detailed patient information to each provider’s desktop or mobile device as soon as a PE or an aortic dissection is detected. As part of Viz.ai’s commercial aortic module offering, access to imaging and workflows supporting the coordination of care for patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA), rupture, stenosis and transection will be available in addition to the AD algorithm. Similarly, the PE algorithm will be available on Viz.ai’s commercial PE module.

“The addition of AI powered workflows should decrease the time from diagnosis to treatment and help to coordinate care for patients suffering from life-threatening PE and aortic disease, as it has in the treatment of ischemic stroke. It will help to facilitate faster and easier treatment decisions across health systems, and this should improve outcomes for patients,” said Dr. Richard Saxon, interventional radiologist Tri-City Medical Center.

The Viz Platform is clinically proven and validated by Medicare, which reimburses hospitals directly via a New Technology Add-On Payment for Viz LVO, the time-saving ischemic stroke product. Pairing team alerts enhanced by AI with high-fidelity mobile image viewing, patient information and full-stack secure communication enables multidisciplinary teams to make faster treatment decisions for patients. The result increases access to care and improves outcomes for patients.

“We are proud to become a trusted partner of Viz.ai, who is committed to giving access to high-standard healthcare systems worldwide. Thanks to our AI-based solutions, we hope to facilitate an optimal medical response within a short time frame and improve patient care. We look forward to bringing the benefits of our pulmonary embolism and aortic dissection triage tools to the emergency room and beyond,” said Cyril Di Grandi, chief executive officer of Avicenna.AI.

PE is a potentially deadly form of venous thromboembolic disease, a common cause of cardiovascular death, and is associated with multiple inherited and acquired risk factors affecting hundreds of thousands of people every year globally. PE occurs when a blood clot gets lodged in an artery in the lung, blocking blood flow to part of the lung. Similar to PE, aortic disease is potentially deadly and can require urgent surgical intervention to prevent death.

“We’re delighted to partner with Avicenna to bring intelligent care coordination to the peripheral vascular and vascular fields. This will form part of a broader Viz.AI platform, where any patient with life threatening diseases can benefit from AI powered triage, fast mobile communication and synchronized care coordination,” said Dr. Chris Mansi, Viz.ai CEO and co-founder. “This partnership will bring the advantages of artificial intelligence to more patients and help hospitals achieve better clinical outcomes.”

About Viz.ai, Inc.
Viz.ai is the leader in AI-driven intelligent care coordination. Viz.ai’s mission is to fundamentally improve how healthcare is delivered in the world, through intelligent software that promises to reduce time to treatment, improve access to care, and increase the speed of diffusion of medical innovation. Viz.ai’s clinically validated platform leverages advanced deep learning to communicate time-sensitive information to specialists who can more quickly and easily make treatment decisions for the patient. In February 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted a De Novo clearance for Viz LVO, the first-ever computer-aided triage and notification software. Viz.ai announced its second FDA clearance for Viz CTP through the 510(k) pathway, offering healthcare providers an important tool for automated cerebral perfusion image analysis. A third FDA clearance was granted in 2020 for Viz ICH, which uses AI to automatically detect suspected intracranial hemorrhage on CT imaging. In 2020, CMS granted Viz.ai the first New Technology Add-on Payment (NTAP) for artificial intelligence software for Viz LVO.

Viz.ai is located in San Francisco and Tel Aviv and backed by leading Silicon Valley investors, including Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures, Greenoaks, CRV, Threshold Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Susa Ventures, Scale Venture Partners and Insight Partners.

Click here and find out more about Viz.ai.

Posted on

Avicenna.AI Joins Nuance AI Marketplace for Diagnostic Imaging

Logo Nuance

Marseille, France – 29th June, 2021 – Avicenna.AI today announced that their FDA-cleared applications for neurovascular emergencies, CINA-ICH & CINA–LVO, are available on the Nuance® AI Marketplace, the first and largest portal with one-stop access to a wide range of AI diagnostic models from within the industry’s most widely used radiology reporting platform.

CINA offers radiologists an unparalleled solution for triaging patients with positive impact on high occurrence life-threatening pathologies. CINA-ICH and CINA-LVO automatically detect and prioritize acute intracranial hemorrhage and large vessel occlusion cases within 20 seconds, seamlessly alerting the radiologist within their existing systems and workflow.

The Nuance AI Marketplace functions like an app store dedicated to radiology. It gives algorithm developers consolidated, at-scale access to users of Nuance PowerScribe™, the radiology reporting system trusted by approximately 80 percent of U.S. radiologists across more than 9,000 connected healthcare facilities. Radiologists can discover, test, and use AI models from within their familiar Nuance PowerScribe reporting and workflow orchestration solutions to increase reporting efficiency and quality, and to help care teams improve patient outcomes and healthcare costs. A built-in feedback channel lets users share real-world results with developers for model refinement and post-market surveillance. Hospital systems benefit with simplified purchasing and metrics showing AI usage, costs, and performance.

“We are glad to partner with a global partner such as Nuance who shares our same values to put patient care at the core of their business. Together we are committed to transforming medical imaging by empowering radiologists in their daily tasks. Thanks to this partnership and our combined solutions, we aim to advance the future of healthcare,” said Cyril Di Grandi, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Avicenna.AI.

Posted on

AI triage solution for deadly vascular conditions receives FDA clearance and CE Mark

CINA-LVO

Avicenna.AI announces the introduction of CINA-PE and CINA-AD, including AI tools for detection and emergency triage of pulmonary embolism and aortic dissection

Marseille, FRANCE – June 2, 2021 – Medical imaging AI specialist Avicenna.AI today announced that it has received certification in the United States and European Union for CINA-PE and CINA-AD, the new AI solutions that leverages deep learning algorithms for emergency triage of deadly vascular conditions.

In addition to securing a CE Mark in the EU, CINA-PE and CINA-AD have also received 510(k) clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration for its automatic detection and triage capabilities for both pulmonary embolism (PE) and aortic dissection (AD) from CT-scan imaging.our CINA solution.

Pulmonary embolism is the blockage of an artery in the lungs and is one of the major causes of death, morbidity, and hospitalization worldwide. It is difficult to diagnose PE as it manifests in diverse ways and can be mimicked by a range of other conditions. CINA CHEST provides rapid automatic PE detection on CT chest angiography, providing clinicians with accurate and rapid real-time alerts on the disease.  

Aortic dissection is a tear in the inner layer of the aorta, allowing blood to flow between the layers. Although relatively rare, AD has a high mortality rate and is often not diagnosed when it first appears. Patients who receive the appropriate treatment in a timely manner have a high survival rate, so the importance of a quick and accurate diagnosis is critical. CINA CHEST identifies acute AD cases that require urgent intervention, providing accurate, real-time alerts on thoraco-abdominal CT angiography.

CINA CHEST is part of Avicenna’s CINA family of AI tools that support the treatment of emergencies, including CINA HEAD, its FDA-cleared and CE-Marked solution that supports the detection and triage of stroke and neurovascular emergencies.

“At Avicenna, we specialize in the development of AI algorithms that can identify acute abnormalities, and CINA CHEST is the latest application we’ve developed to enhance emergency room radiology,” said Cyril Di Grandi, co-founder and CEO of Avicenna.AI. “Our PE and AD triage tools are the third and fourth algorithms we’ve released in less than 12 months, demonstrating our ambition to create AI applications that support detection and triage of emergencies throughout the entire body.”

Posted on

Avicenna.AI receives CE Mark for stroke severity assessment AI tool

CINA-ASPECTS

Medical imaging AI innovator secures EU certification for CINA-ASPECTS, which helps quantify the severity of a stroke from a brain CT scan.

Marseille, FRANCE – May 27, 2021 – Medical imaging AI specialist Avicenna.AI today announced that it has received CE Mark certification for its CINA-ASPECTS AI tool for stroke severity assessment. CINA-ASPECTS automatically processes non-contrast CT scans and calculates the “ASPECT”score, assisting the radiologist within their existing systems and workflow.

ASPECTS, which stands for “Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score” is a topographic scoring system used to quantify the severity of a stroke from a CT scan of the brain. It divides the brain territory affected by a stroke into 10 areas of interest and provides a score between zero and 10, where 10 is normal and zero indicates widespread ischemic damage throughout the affected area.

CINA-ASPECTS computes a heat map indicating the probability of hypodensity and/or sulcal effacement in the brain, and displays a list of infarcted regions. It also provides tilted and resliced CT images to allow easy comparison of the right and left hemispheres.

In addition to assisting clinicians to evaluate the ASPECT score from CT scans, CINA-ASPECTS also helps improve the reproducibility of the score, which often varies depending on the radiologist reading the scan.

CINA-ASPECTS is part of Avicenna.AI’s CINA Head family of AI tools that support the treatment of stroke and neurovascular emergencies. CINA Head also includes FDA-cleared and CE-Marked tools for detecting intracranial hemorrhages (ICHs) and large vessel occlusions (LVOs) from CT-scan imaging.

“CINA-ASPECTS supports stroke physicians and radiologists in the assessment and characterization of early ischemic brain tissue injury using CT image data,” said Cyril Di Grandi, co-founder, and CEO of Avicenna.AI.

“This new tool demonstrates our commitment to providing radiologists with AI solutions that can enhance their capabilities. Securing a CE Mark is a key milestone and we are delighted to be able to start offering the benefits of CINA-ASPECTS to our European customers – we look forward to FDA clearance in due course.”

Posted on

AI in Clinical Practice – Jennifer Soun, MD’s Interview

Jennifer Soun Interview

Assistant Professor of Radiology at UC Irvine School of Medicine, Jennifer Soun graduated in 2008 in psychology and neuroscience at Princeton University. Dr. Soun is a board-certified UCI Health diagnostic radiologist who specializes in neuroradiology. Her clinical interests include stroke and vascular imaging. She earned her medical degree at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC. She completed a residency in diagnostic radiology at New York Presbyterian-Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, followed by a fellowship in neuroradiology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.  During the ISC (International Stroke Conference) 2020 seminar we had the opportunity to meet and discuss AI in clinical practice. 

What are the advantages you see in A.I. in your clinical practice? 

AI in my clinical practice is very helpful and has a lot of potential for different things. One major thing is triaging of patients, for example, detecting hemorrhage and being able to put those cases higher up on a list of studies that we read. 

 “ I don’t see AI replacing radiologists, I see it as a very helpful tool assistant to the radiologists. ”

 A.I. can also help in providing more objective data like measurements and how they change over time. I don’t see it replacing radiologists, I see it as a very helpful tool assistant to the radiologists 

Do you think that specificity or sensitivity should be taken more into account in AI products, such as false negative and positive detection?

These measures definitely should be considered carefully when evaluating an AI tool. False negatives can be dangerous. For example, missing a large vessel occlusion is worse than overcalling it because an LVO is a treatable lesion. If left untreated, the patient may have significant morbidity. 

However,  there are more nuanced situations where a false negative may not be clinically significant. For example, if a tiny intracranial hemorrhage is missed, it may be within acceptable limits since a subtle ICH may not be as clinically significant. It’s important to have a balance between specificity and sensitivity.

What is the impact of false positives on workflow?

Having too many false positives can be a problem because, then you can’t trust the AI tool to work effectively, and the radiologist is less likely to even use it. Too many false positives may increase the time that the radiologist spends on a study, which would defeat the purpose of using AI as a fast triage tool. Regardless, the radiologist’s interpretation would need to confirm the final decision-making. Despite these challenges, we remain optimistic as more and more companies bring new solutions combining optimal specificity and sensitivity that could significantly improve radiologists’ workflow and triaging.

Posted on

Sur le marché de la radiologie, Avicenna.Ai se place en challenger

CT Scan on old man

Sur un marché de plus en plus concurrentiel, Avicenna.AI a choisi de prendre son temps. Ce marché, c’est celui de la radiologie intelligente. Celle qui permet de guider le regard du médecin, de l’aider à détecter des pathologies qui lui auraient échappé à l’œil nu. “Le marché est occupé par des acteurs trop gros pour développer des outils comme le nôtre“, observe Olivier Fuseri, chargé d’affaires de l’entreprise. “Il y a aussi de plus en plus de startups qui organisent d’importantes levées de fonds”.  Face à ces acteurs, Avicenna.Ai a choisi de se placer en challenger. “Nous sommes restés cachés le plus longtemps possible”, le temps de perfectionner sa solution et d’atteindre des performances élevées. Ainsi, alors que la plupart des solutions d’imagerie intelligente indiquent au radiologue le moindre élément anormal – “ce qui lui fait perdre du temps” – le logiciel développé par Avicenna.Ai ne veut l’alerter qu’en cas d’urgence, “avec très peu de faux positifs“.

Car l’idée est bien d‘offrir à un gain de temps à des radiologues souvent en sous-effectifs, mais aussi d’améliorer la prise en charge du patient.

Pour l’heure, l’entreprise a développé trois produits capables de détecter, à partir des scanners du malade, des hémorragies intracérébrales et l’occlusion de gros vaisseaux. Des pathologies pour lesquelles chaque seconde compte. “Chaque seconde, des neurones sont perdus et ne seront jamais régénérés“. D’où l’intérêt d’une prise en charge rapide. “Cela permettra un temps de récupération drastiquement réduit avant de reprendre une vie normale”. Et qui dit meilleure récupération dit moins de coûts pour la collectivité et le système de santé. “C’est moins d’interruptions de travail, moins de complications à soigner…”

En attente d’une certification de la FDA américaine

Après le temps du développement, place à celui du marquage, plus chronophage. Deux produits ont déjà obtenu la certification européenne, ils attendent son équivalent américain, le marquage par la Food and drug administration (ou FDA). “Les États-Unis sont notre principale cible. Lorsque je discute avec de grosses entreprises internationales, elles m’expliquent qu’elles n’investissent pas dans des entreprises françaises qui ne sont pas capables de travailler pour la FDA”. Un Graal pour lequel il faudra patienter encore quelques mois avant la commercialisation prévue au second semestre de cette année.

Et le marché est immense. “Tous les centres, y compris les plus petits, ont des scanners” et sont donc des clients potentiels. Mais pour s’adresser à eux, l’entreprise fait le choix de passer par des distributeurs. “Notre but est de travailler au travers de partenaires formés qui connaissent bien les produits“. Il pourra s’agir de marketplaces ou bien de fournisseurs d’outils en radiologie. “Ceux-ci proposent avant tout du matériel et ne font pas de traitement d’images. Leurs clients leur demandent à ce que cela soit ajouté à leurs outils”. Avicenna.Ai vise aussi les fabricants d’IRM et de scanners qui pourraient eux aussi intégrer le logiciel à leurs produits.

Grâce à ces partenaires, l’entreprise espère voir ses produits présents dans dix à vingt centres de santé d’ici la fin d’année. “Ce sera une année d’incubation pour voir comment le marché se présente“. A terme, l’ambition est de devenir “un des leaders sur l’imagerie d’urgence mais aussi sur d’autres sujets”. L’oncologie pourrait être l’un d’eux. “Cela dépendra des opportunités de recherche qui se présenteront“.

Lisez l’article de presse en intégralité.

features

Download

follow us

Linkedin Youtube Twitter