by Dana Brown, President and CEO of iCAD, Inc.
We’ve joined forces with Google Health once again to address two of the most pressing challenges in healthcare: the global radiologist shortage and significant disparities in healthcare.
Per our 20-year worldwide agreement, Google’s AI technology will seamlessly integrate into our ProFound Breast Health Suite, including ProFound Detection, for use as an independent reader for breast cancer screening with 2D mammography. Additionally, as part of this agreement, iCAD will provide a portion of its breast cancer screening for underserved individuals in certain countries at no cost.
2D mammography is still widely used outside the U.S., and in many countries around the world, mammograms must be read by two radiologists. However, this conventional double-reading workflow is becoming increasingly challenging due to the scarcity of radiologists worldwide. For example, while Europe has 13 radiologists per 100,000 in the population, the U.K. lags behind at just 8.5 radiologists per 100,000, underscoring the urgency for an innovative solution to help facilities and clinicians address this pressing need. With the potential to become a second reader for breast cancer screening upon regulatory approval, ProFound Detection could provide a viable solution to the global radiologist shortage while also helping to reduce disparities in healthcare for millions of women worldwide.
The fusion of our Breast AI Suite with Google’s AI technology isn’t just about combining two of the most advanced innovations in breast care in recent years; it’s about harnessing our collective strengths to
redefine breast cancer screening.
With thousands of installations worldwide, iCAD’s ProFound Detection is already the most widely adopted technology of its kind. It is clinically proven to improve accuracy and efficiency for radiologists, empowering them to find more cancers while reducing the rate of false positives and unnecessary recalls.1,2
Google has already been exploring the use of its technology as an independent reader, with extremely promising results. Combining Google’s AI technology with our leading-edge ProFound Breast Health Suite of AI solutions stands to not only enhance our technology but also to expand access to the technology to millions of women and providers worldwide.
In a groundbreaking study of six radiologists, Google’s mammography AI system outperformed all of the human readers with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC-ROC) exceeding the average radiologist’s AUC-ROC by a substantial margin of 11.5%. Moreover, in a simulation in which Google’s AI system participated in the double-reading process used in the UK, the AI system maintained
non-inferior performance and reduced the workload of the second reader by 88%.3
We are on the cusp of transformative change in breast cancer screening as we continue to work with Google Health to advance patient care and revolutionize breast cancer screening worldwide. This integration underscores our shared commitment to delivering innovative solutions that transcend the limitations of traditional approaches. Together, we’re poised to empower healthcare providers and bridge the gap created by the radiologist shortage while reducing disparities in healthcare for millions of women worldwide.
- Graewingholt A, Rossi PG. (2021). Retrospective analysis of the effect on interval cancer rate of adding an artificial intelligence algorithm to the reading process for two-dimensional full-field digital mammography. J Med Screen. 0(0) 1-3.
- Conant, E et al. (2019). Improving Accuracy and Efficiency with Concurrent Use of Artificial Intelligence for Digital Breast Tomosynthesis. Radiology: Artificial Intelligence. 1 (4). Accessed via https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/10.1148/ryai.2019180096
- McKinney, S.M., Sieniek, M., Godbole, V. et al. International evaluation of an AI system for breast cancer screening. Nature 577, 89–94 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1799-6