Leading experts to discuss novel AI technology helping them overcome pandemic-related challenges including substantial mammography backlog
NASHUA, N.H., Sept. 09, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —
iCAD, Inc
. (NASDAQ: ICAD), a global medical technology leader providing innovative cancer detection and therapy solutions, today announced that it will host an educational roundtable event to help clinicians and their facilities recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Titled “
Pandemic Recovery: How New Technology Can Support Clinicians and Patients in the Aftermath of COVID-19
,” the free event will take place on September 14, 2021, at 7 pm ET/4 pm PT. Visit
this link
to register.
“Clinicians are in need of new solutions to navigate today’s challenges,” said Stacey Stevens, President of iCAD. “Mammography dropped by as much as 92% in some areas at the height of the pandemic, creating a massive mammography backlog,
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but as more Americans are becoming vaccinated, women have begun to return to imaging centers for cancer screening. This educational roundtable features leading experts who will discuss their experiences with pandemic-related clinical, economic and volume-based challenges, as well as best practices on leveraging new technology—such as ProFound AI
®
—to help overcome these hurdles.”
The event will feature leading specialists in breast cancer detection and treatment, including:
- Angela Fried, MD, Director of Breast Imaging at SimonMed Imaging, Daly City, CA
- Diana James, MD, PhD, Radiologist, Director of Breast Imaging at Jefferson Radiology, Hartford, CT
- Joshua A. Nepute, MD, Radiologist, IU Health Frankfort, IU Health Arnett, IU Health White Memorial, Lafayette, IN
- Neesha Patel, MD, Director of Breast Imaging and Residency and Clerkship Academic Director, Kings County Hospital, SUNY Downstate
- Rakesh Patel, MD (Moderator), Managing Partner, Precision Cancer Specialists, Inc. Chair, Breast Cancer Program, Good Samaritan Hospital, Los Gatos, CA
- Barry Rosen, MD FACS, Medical Director, Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital, Breast Center Assistant Professor, University of Illinois College of Medicine
“We began the implementation of ProFound AI at the end of 2019 and completed the rollout in the middle of the pandemic, in mid-2020. Just before that time, in mid-2019, we converted our practice to 100% tomosynthesis,” said Dr. James. “We are typically a very high-volume practice reading more than 50,000 screening mammograms per year, and the addition of a ‘second reader’ via ProFound AI helped our radiologists absorb our increased workload. We paused our screening mammogram program per Society of Breast Imaging (SBI) recommendations during the beginning of the pandemic, but were quickly back to full plus volume by August 2020. ProFound AI helped us to read those cases quickly with the confidence that we were not missing cancers.”
“After a year of using it, I’ve come to an eye-opening realization: ProFound AI is looking at things that we clinicians don’t necessarily recognize as signs of cancer,” added Dr. Fried. “For example, I have seen this technology identify undetectable breast cancer cases one year earlier. We’ve really gotten to trust it, and I am confident that more of those subtle, obscured lesions will be picked up earlier because of this.”
ProFound AI is a high-performance, deep-learning, workflow solution trained to detect malignant soft tissue densities and calcifications. ProFound AI for Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) became the first 3D tomosynthesis software using artificial intelligence (AI) to be FDA cleared in December 2018. The software is also available for 2D full-field digital mammography (FFDM). In a reader study published in
Radiology
: Artificial Intelligence
, ProFound AI for DBT was shown to offer clinically proven time-savings benefits to radiologists, reducing reading time by 52.7%, improving radiologist sensitivity by 8%, and reducing false positives and unnecessary patient recall rates by 7.2%.
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“We saw our volume of mammography screenings decrease significantly during the pandemic; however, since this past spring, our volume has skyrocketed,” said Dr. Nepute. “We are at least 10% above our pre-pandemic levels at this time, which has led to feelings of burnout by many of our radiologists, but ProFound AI has been a reliable backup for our team, as it helps to ensure we’re performing at an optimum level and calling back only those patients who need additional imaging.”
“We are now busier than ever, as many patients who didn’t get screened during the pandemic are coming back,” said Dr. Neesha Patel. “We have a significant backlog—in fact, we’re booking screenings into January and February of 2022 right now. ProFound AI helps to boost our confidence – it’s akin to someone looking over my shoulder while I read, so I know I’m not the only one looking at these images.”
Built with the latest in deep-learning technology, ProFound AI for DBT rapidly analyzes each tomosynthesis image, detecting malignant soft tissue densities. Certainty of Finding and Case Scores are relative scores computed by the ProFound AI algorithm and represent its confidence that a detection or case is malignant. The Certainty of Finding scores help radiologists by aiding in clinical decision making. Case Scores, which are assigned to each case by the algorithm, help clinicians to gain a sense of case complexity, which may be useful for prioritizing the reading work list.
“Clinicians are struggling to manage the backlog of women who need to make up for lost time, but it’s clear that ProFound AI is playing a role in helping facilities overcome these challenges,” added Stevens. “ProFound AI Risk may also play an integral part in the COVID-19 recovery process for imaging facilities, as it provides clinicians critical information regarding patients’ individual risks of developing breast cancer, which may help them to personalize screening regimens. iCAD is proud to be an integral partner in helping providers and facilities recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and provide the highest quality care to patients.”
ProFound AI Version 3.0 for Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) was recently cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in March 2021. Compared to previous versions of the software, the ProFound AI 3.0 algorithm offers up to a 10% improvement in specificity performance and up to 1% improvement in sensitivity.
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The latest version of the platform also offers up to 40% faster processing on the new PowerLook platform.
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ProFound AI Version 3.0 was developed using over five million images from 30,000 cases, including almost 8,000 biopsy-proven cancers, and validated on approximately one million images from 3,500 cases that included 1,200 biopsy-proven cancers.
iCAD’s Breast Health Solutions suite also includes ProFound AI for 2D Mammography, ProFound AI Risk, the world’s first and only clinical decision support tool that provides an accurate two-year, breast cancer risk estimation that is truly personalized for each woman, based only on a screening mammogram,
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and software to evaluate breast density.
About iCAD, Inc.
Headquartered in Nashua, NH, iCAD is a global medical technology leader providing innovative cancer detection and therapy solutions. For more information, visit
www.icadmed.com
and
www.xoftinc.com
.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this News Release constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements about the benefits of the Company’s products and future prospects for the Company’s technology platforms and products. Such forward-looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited, to the Company’s ability to achieve business and strategic objectives, the willingness of patients to undergo mammography screening in light of risks of potential exposure to Covid-19, whether mammography screening will be treated as an essential procedure, whether ProFound AI will improve reading efficiency, improve specificity and sensitivity, reduce false positives and otherwise prove to be more beneficial for patients and clinicians, the impact of supply and manufacturing constraints or difficulties on our ability to fulfill our orders, uncertainty of future sales levels, to defend itself in litigation matters, protection of patents and other proprietary rights, product market acceptance, possible technological obsolescence of products, increased competition, government regulation, changes in Medicare or other reimbursement policies, risks relating to our existing and future debt obligations, competitive factors, the effects of a decline in the economy or markets served by the Company; and other risks detailed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The words “believe,” “demonstrate,” “intend,” “expect,” “estimate,” “will,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “likely,” “seek,” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on those forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date the statement was made. The Company is under no obligation to provide any updates to any information contained in this release. For additional disclosure regarding these and other risks faced by iCAD, please see the disclosure contained in our public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, available on the Investors section of our website at http://www.icadmed.com and on the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov.
Contacts:
Media inquiries:
Jessica Burns, iCAD
+1-201-423-4492
[email protected]
Investor Relations:
Jeremy Feffer, LifeSci Advisors
+1-212-915-2568
[email protected]
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Duszak, Richard, et al. Characteristics of COVID-19 Community Practice Declines in Noninvasive Diagnostic Imaging Professional Work. Journal of the American College of Radiology: JACR, vol. 17, no. 11, 2020, pp. 1453-1459. Accessed via https://www.jacr.org/article/S1546-1440(20)30742-0/fulltext
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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
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iCAD data on file. Standalone performance varies by vendor. FDA Cleared.
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Eriksson M, Czene K, Strand F, et al. Identification of Women at High Risk of Breast Cancer Who Need Supplemental Screening. [published online ahead of print September 8, 2020]. Radiology. Accessed via https://doi.org/10.1148/radiol.2020201620
