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Cranfield, UK, 3rd September 2024, Written by Poornima Anil and Max Street –
In this monthly news roundup, we offer some of the latest news and developments impacting the X-ray market that have piqued our interest in recent weeks, including our thoughts on the implications for the market.
Radiography and Mammography AI
Naitive awarded Innovated UK fund
Innovate UK recently announced co-funding for Naitive’s OsteoSight AI solution under the Biomedical Catalyst initiative, totalling £334k ($440k). OsteoSight provides Bone Mineral Density (BMD) measurements from pelvic and hip X-rays and this funding will further its capabilities to include spine and chest X-ray BMD analysis. Since chest X-rays constitute the majority of all X-ray exams conducted, this will greatly increase their ability to provide incidental osteoporosis pre-screening with routine X-rays.
Naitive was previously awarded £690k ($910k) under Innovate UK’s Advancing Precision Medicine programme grant in December 2023. This funding is directed at an NHS study at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust to assess the accuracy of OsteoSight. As part of this study, BMD measurements from X-ray images analysed by OsteoSight are compared against additional DXA exams undergone by the patients. Previous studies have already found OsteoSight results to closely correlate to DXA, but more robust clinical validation is likely to contribute positively to their potential CE marking certification. Particularly once capable of chest and spine X-ray analysis, this would significantly expand their potential customer base beyond the United States, where OsteoSight currently holds FDA approval.
Radiobotics increases in availability to NHS
This month UK’s Crown Commercial Service granted Radiobotics approval to sell their AI licenses across all NHS Trusts and Imaging Networks. As a result, this approval is expected to significantly improve Radiobotics’ footprint in the UK market particularly for its RBFracture solution, which enables faster automatic detection of fractures, resulting in less downstream costs of missed fractures.
CureMetrix enters cmAngio into Blackford’s AI platform, highlighting indicate cardiac risk from routine mammograms
Blackford AI announced this month that it would incorporate cmAngio from CureMetrix into its AI platform. This is a pioneering, FDA-approved AI solution, which enables automatic detection of Breast Arterial Calcifications (BAC) on 2D and 3D mammograms. BAC are an incidental findings and indicative of higher cardiovascular risk. Results can prompt further patient management from the radiologist, but currently adoption of the AI is held back by a lack of guidelines on BAC identification, reporting and follow-up. As highlighted by a survey from the Canadian Society of Breast Imaging, only 17% of radiologists were aware of a link between BAC and heightened cardiovascular risk. However, the study concluded implementation of BAC reporting, a grading system, and clinical management guidelines, would provide value.
Lunit expands their presence in Singapore and the US for mammography and chest X-ray AI
Lunit completed a series of partnerships in Singapore and the United States to expand their customer base of INSIGHT CXR and INSIGHT MMG AI licenses. Over the past two years, Lunit has grown significantly, particularly with the 150 million USD in funding that was secured in November 2023. This funding has recently supported adoption of INSIGHT MMG across various national breast cancer screening programmes, as well as their recent acquisition of breast AI competitor Volpara, which finalised in May 2024.
Medical imaging service provider, Rezolut, announced a new paid-for AI service, which offers customers an additional second-reading of their mammograms using AI. The AI, named SecondReadAI is powered by Lunit’s INSIGHT MMG and leverages Lunit’s reported increase in early-stage cancer detection of up to 15% for patients willing to pay the additional 40 USD out-of-pocket fee. The service is currently available at two of Rezolut’s radiology facilities in New York and is expected to expand to additional imaging facilities. Rezolut owns or partners with a total of 19 medical imaging service providers.
Additionally, Volpara (a Lunit subsidiary) has established a software supply contract with Intermountain Health, a non-profit US healthcare provider with over 34 hospitals and 400 clinics. Under this deal, Volpara’s Risk Pathways, Analytics and Scorecard will be deployed to optimise the quality and workflow of mammography technologists, and assess patient’s breast density and cancer risk. This will further strengthen Lunit’s US market share gain since acquiring Volpara.
Lunit has also begun trialling its INSIGHT CXR at Geylang Polyclinic, which belongs to National Healthcare Group (NHG), one of Singapore’s leading public healthcare providers. This partnership is in response to the increasing number of primary care chest X-rays from NHG polyclinics requiring reading, highlighting the importance of Lunit’s CXR triage capabilities. The pilot phase will run from October 2024 to August 2025 before its full deployment across the additional seven NHG polyclinics. This programme is aided by the national radiology AI platform AimSG and funding from Singapore’s National Health Innovation Centre.
SATA CommHealth in Singapore also began using Lunit’s INSIGHT MMG AI in up to six of its medical centres to streamline the analysis of screening mammograms, improving early detection and radiologist efficiency.
Surgical X-ray
Skanray, an Indian based MedTech company, has partnered with Tata Elxsi to lead the development of a new software platform to be utilised by Skanray’s medical imaging portfolio. The software platform will use both AI and generative AI to enhance diagnosis and will also be utilised by Skanray’s new upcoming advanced surgical modalities. Alongside this, Skanray will also be releasing new reusable modules, and components for their systems.
Signify Research’s most recent X-ray reports include new analysis on the General Radiography and Fluoroscopy, Interventional and Surgical X-ray and Flat Panel Detectors. We will be publishing the following reports soon:
- Breast Imaging in October 2024.
- Bone and Metabolic Health in November 2024.
We welcome further conversations on the trends specifically impacting the markets highlighted.
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About the team
Bhvita Jani
Bhvita joined Signify Research in 2020 as part of the Medical Imaging Team focusing on the X-ray market. She brings with her 3 years’ experience covering X-ray, MRI and CT research at IHS Markit. Bhvita also has three years’ experience in digital and offline marketing and was previously an assistant clinical psychologist. She received her bachelor’s degree in Biology and Psychology from Aston University.
Poornima Anil
Poornima joined Signify Research’s Medical Imaging Team in 2023. She brings over 14 years’ of experience in healthcare market research, analysis and business intelligence. She has a Master’s degree in bioinformatics.
Max Street
Having graduated from the University of Bristol with a BSc in Pharmacology, Max joined the Medical Imaging team at Signify Research in 2023, focusing on the X-ray market.
About Signify Research
Signify Research provides healthtech market intelligence powered by data that you can trust. We blend insights collected from in-depth interviews with technology vendors and healthcare professionals with sales data reported to us by leading vendors to provide a complete and balanced view of the market trends. Our coverage areas are Medical Imaging, Clinical Care, Digital Health, Diagnostic and Lifesciences and Healthcare IT.
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