Spintech MRI Inc. raised $6.5 million in series A financing to expand deployment of MRI software designed to improve and accelerate diagnosis and treatment of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases. The FDA-cleared Strategically Acquired Gradient Echo (Stage) platform is currently in use at more than 50 U.S. hospitals and institutions, including the Yale School of Medicine for advanced research, analysis and treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
Quantitative imaging (QI) is making an increasingly larger footprint in clinical practice, and the U.S. FDA has rounded out a 2019 draft guidance spelling out the agency’s expectations regarding technical performance assessment of this class of products. Developers of software that provide quantitative data from imaging studies should expect to conduct studies that ensure the software controls for a wide range of sources of error, suggesting that studies of these algorithms could prove expensive.
Developers of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms in medical radiology tend to think of regulatory approval as the primary hurdle to market, but there is also the question of how to pay for the use of these products. Public and private payers obviously hold the purse strings, but appealing to payers is still not always as straightforward proposition as some would like, reinforcing the notion that coverage and reimbursement still combine to serve as one of the highest hurdles to market for AI and ML.
Stratipath AB gained CE-IVD mark for its artificial intelligence (AI)-based software for prognostic risk stratification of breast cancers, clearing the path for introduction of the solution in the EU. Stratipath Breast analyzes digital histopathology whole slide images generated from surgically resected breast cancer tissue to identify patients with increased risk of disease progression. The system provides clearer guidance on the best treatment path for the 50% of women whose breast cancer is categorized as intermediate risk.
Medi-Globe GmbH, in conjunction with the Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire (IHU) in Strasbourg, France, is developing new artificial intelligence (AI) software for the detection of pancreatic disease. The Rohrdorf Germany-based company just completed a first-in-human trial of this AI tool during an endoscopic ultrasound examination performed at the Institute of Image-Guided Surgery at IHU.
The U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said the Synapsys microbiology informatics software platform has an access vulnerability due to an inadequate session expiration mechanism. Becton, Dickinson & Co. (BD), the publisher of the Synapsys system, said three versions of the software are vulnerable, but this vulnerability can be exploited only by those with direct access to the workstations, making this a lower risk than some other recently reported vulnerabilities.
A large health system in Minnesota recently became the first in the world to have completed a structural heart procedure, or any other surgical procedure for that matter, using any kind of 4D hologram technology. The technology was developed by venture capital-backed startup Echopixel Inc., and it is intended to improve both surgical precision and outcomes in minimally invasive procedures.
Keeping you up to date on recent developments in neurology, including: Software developed to objectively calculate white matter hyperintensities; CSF biomarkers point to underlying cause of neural damage in COVID-19; Scientists discover how cryptochrome mutation leads to sleep disorder; Physical labor significantly increases the risk of dementia.
