Affidea and Aidence announce a strategic partnership to streamline and improve the clinical performance of lung diagnosis and screening to drive earlier detection and treatment in the case of lung cancer.
As the leading European provider of advanced diagnostic imaging services, Affidea is starting the collaboration with Aidence, a medical artificial intelligence (AI) company that develops deep-learning solutions for healthcare, by implementing its AI solution Veye Lung Nodules on a ground-breaking pilot in three countries: Italy, Greece, and Hungary, with the possibility to extend it to other regions across Affidea’s European network.
The clinically approved AI software of Aidence, Veye Lung Nodules, is used to assist and support radiologists’ workflow in routine clinical practice and screening programmes by automatically detecting, classifying and tracking the growth of pulmonary nodules.
The AI solution Veye Lung Nodules provides radiologists with relevant and accurate information regarding pulmonary nodules as small as 3 mm, analysing roughly 300 images contained in a chest CT. The information given to the radiologist presents a 3D representation of the pulmonary nodules, and it can accelerate the speed of reporting by providing doctors with an insight into the nodule morphology in one view: location, volume, and growth rate. Veye Lung Nodules is CE certified and can be used as a second or concurrent reader.
Commenting on the partnership, Giuseppe Recchi, Affidea’s CEO, stated:
“Healthcare is under transformation and at Affidea we are committed to lead this pathway, improving patient outcomes and doctors’ experience. This is our third AI innovative project that we start across 3 countries in our European network. We see AI as an innovative tool that will support our radiologists in their daily workflow.
AI is not a magic box where you include the data and the diagnosis comes out but with the use of AI, we provide to radiologists with extra digital powers to enhance and support their diagnosis decisions. The promise of AI in radiology is exciting and it can be a key enabler to advance precision medicine and drive a faster, more personalised diagnosis. We look forward to implementing Aidence’s innovative AI solution for the benefit of patients across Europe, improving clinical outcomes in lung cancer diagnosis.”
CEO of Aidence, Mark-Jan Harte, added:
“Veye Lung Nodules was designed to transform chest CT reporting by introducing AI to increase accuracy and efficiency. We are already seeing the benefits of routine clinical practice. We believe Veye Lung Nodules will have a significant contribution to lung cancer screening programs by providing consistent and fast volumetric growth measurements. We are very excited to partner with Affidea to bring our technology to lung screening programs across Europe.”
Prof Rowland Illing, Senior Vice President, Chief Medical and Digital Strategy Officer Affidea, commented:
“We know the vital importance of early and accurate diagnosis in lung cancer. The earlier the disease is detected, the better chance there is that the patient can get curative treatment. AI gives us an opportunity to change the way we care for our patients, supporting our doctors not only in speeding up the diagnosis but also given them a second pair of eyes.
We are the pioneers in our field and we are always looking for clinically proven methods to increase medical outcomes, which could ultimately save lives.”
Veye Lung Nodules detects pulmonary nodules at 90% sensitivity. Its clinical performance has been validated on the Lung Image Data Base Consortium (LIDC) and Image Data Base Resource Initiative (IDRI), as well as an independent study by the University of Edinburgh.
