Using AI, iCAD is “Creating a World Where Cancer Can’t Hide”—at RSNA and Beyond

For iCAD, “Creating a World where Cancer Can't Hide” is more than a tagline to promote at RSNA. It’s a mission, one that radiologists and other providers, as well as patients, will come to understand in the context of how technology can enable early and innovative cancer detection.

iCAD’s breast health technology delivers powerful solutions built on AI for personalized breast care that includes digital breast tomosynthesis, breast density, 2-D mammography, and personalized risk assessment. This year, the company recently divested their therapy unit, Xoft, to focus entirely on the AI side of the business amid robust development and growing demand.

“The biggest trend [at RSNA] is this shift between, ‘Do I need AI and what is it?’ to, ‘I know I need it in my practice, so how do I make sure that I implement it using best practices?’” says iCAD president and CEO Dana Brown, who comments below about the experience of the radiologist learning curve.

At RSNA, iCAD is taking a threefold approach to educating attendees about the power of AI technology in early detection, according to Brown. At booth #3940, the company is demoing its new technology, the fourth-generation algorithm called 4.0, which was developed in conjunction with Duke University.

“With that algorithm comes support for enhanced readings through use of priors, some refinements to the way in which we mark suspicious areas,” explains Brown, who reports significant improvement in the area under the curve (AUC) with the latest technology and substantial performance improvements overall. “It’s pretty spectacular.”

iCAD is also demonstrating their new heart health solution, which can determine the extent of breast arterial calcification and the risk for heart disease from a mammogram, alerting women earlier to potential concerns about heart health.

Secondly, the company is supporting key opinion leaders and researchers who have been working with iCAD technology and are reporting balanced information about their experiences in presentations. These include:

• Emily Conant, MD, presenting “From Pixels to Practice: Harnessing Innovations in Breast AI to Improve Patient Outcomes” on Monday, Nov. 27 at 3:30 pm in the AI Showcase Theater, which will explore real-life cases that have gone through the newly released 4.0 algorithm. (Booth #4765)
• Axel Graewingholt, MD, presenting “Real World Use of Artificial Intelligence Risk Scores to Identify Women at High Risk for Breast Cancer with Subanalyses Based on Histopathology and Time of Detection” on Monday, Nov. 27 at 8 am. (Session M1-SSBR0).
• Chirag Parghi, MD, “Artificial Intelligence Assessment of Breast Arterial Calcifications on Mammography in a Large Screening Population” on Tuesday, Nov. 28 at 9:30 am. (Session T3-SSBR05).
• Mikael Eriksson, PhD, presenting a Scientific Poster Session on “Multi-national validation of a clinical image-based AI-risk model for individualizing breast cancer screening,” on Monday, Nov. 27 at 12:45 pm. (Session M5B-SPBR-4)
• Thu Ha Dao, MD, presenting a Scientific Poster Session on “Evaluation of a deep-learning based software tool to automatically detect and quantify breast arterial calcifications on digital mammography” on Sunday, Nov. 26 at 12:15 pm.(Session S3B-SPBR-1)

Thirdly, some of these experts, among other thought leaders, are available in the iCAD booth to discuss their findings including what parts of the technology are performing well and the areas that may require improvement. In the booth, thought leaders from Google Health will also discuss the future of AI.

iCAD has been developing its own commercial cloud platform in conjunction with Google. Additionally in partnership with Google, the company announced a 20-year partnership and development of a new algorithm that can be used as an independent reader, which Brown analogizes to a self-driving car. Clinical studies and algorithm development are underway.

iCAD’s products can seamlessly integrate into existing diagnostic processes to enable both peace of mind for patients and improved efficiencies for providers. The company is looking forward to capitalizing on these benefits, among others, for furthering a number of growth initiatives in 2024.