USA – RadNet, a provider of imaging services, has acquired Dutch artificial intelligence (AI) software developers Aidence and Quantib in deals that the company hopes will enable large-scale lung and prostate cancer screening programs.
RadNet’s AI division previously focused on breast imaging AI software, but the acquisitions of Quantib and Aidence will give the company access to prostate, brain, and lung AI applications.
Quantib, a spin-off of Erasmus Medical Center, is based in Rotterdam and develops AI software for prostate and brain MRI.
Meanwhile, Aidence has concentrated on using AI to manage lung nodules and screen for lung cancer.
According to RadNet, the goal is to use these algorithms to facilitate new cancer screening programs for prostate and lung cancer.
RadNet stated that the acquisitions, when combined with its existing DeepHealth mammography AI division, “provide [us] with the basis for future offerings for widespread cancer screening programs for the three most prevalent cancers – breast, prostate, and lung.”
CEO Howard Berger said, “large population health screening will play an important role for health insurers, health systems and large employer groups in the near future.”
He added that “as the largest owner of diagnostic imaging centres in the US, RadNet has relationships that can serve to make large-scale screening programmes, similar to what mammography is for breast cancer screening, a reality.”
Aidence and Quantib will join RadNet’s AI division, which was formed following the 2020 acquisition of DeepHealth, and has previously focused on breast cancer screening and detection.
Gregory Sorensen, president of RadNet’s DeepHealth division, will take over leadership of all AI initiatives at RadNet, including those at Aidence and Quantib.
Aidence’s first commercialized product is Veye Lung Nodules, an AI-based solution for lung nodule detection and management.
Customers in seven European countries, including France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, use the CE-marked solution to analyze computerized tomography scans. In December, the product was submitted to the FDA for 510(k) clearance.
Meanwhile, Quantib has a number of AI-based solutions that have received both CE mark and FDA 510(k) clearance, such as Quantib prostate, which summarizes multiparametric prostate MRI results into an AI heat map that highlights areas of concern.
Similarly, the Quantib brain and Quantib neurodegenerative solutions are used on MRI to quantify brain abnormalities.
The company, which has customers in more than 20 countries, including the United States, is also working on an AI algorithm for breast MRI, which RadNet claims could be complementary to its Deep Health mammography AI solution.
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