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2022-10-25 12_43_29-‘Den perfekte storm’ giver TMC vind i sejlene - Dagens Medicin and 29 more pages

“The perfect Storm” a visit from “Dagens Medicin” at the TMC office in Barcelona

One of the major Danish medical bulletins “Dagens Medicin” published a big article about Telemedicine Clinic (TMC) under the headline “The perfect Storm” at the end of September. (if you are curious to find out why this title, read on!)

“Dagens Medicin” visited the Barcelona office of Telemedicine Clinic on the 33rd floor of the emblematic Torre Mapfre and conducted an interview with CEO Henrik Agrell and Danish medical Advisor, TMC radiologist, Hanne Heeboell. The conversation went on for around 3 hours and many interesting topics were discussed.

The published article is a successor to several articles in the same newspaper about Telemedicine Clinic and the use of help for on-call services at night (amongst other topics). Furthermore the heads of department of 2 major radiological sites in Denmark were interviewed about the positive experiences with having their need for radiological services during the night covered by TMC. This information was also published in the same newspaper

The journalist visited the new Barcelona Office on the 33rd floor in Barcelona in late August 2022 with a wonderful view over the beautiful city and the sea and got an impression of the TMC services including the integration of AI solutions in our daily routine.

“The perfect Storm” refers to the fact that Telemedicine Clinic, as a major provider of teleradiological services in several European countries, including Denmark, Sweden and UK, has accelerated in growth due to the lack of radiologists in general and the increasing need for subspecialised radiologists because of the increasing complexity in diagnostic imaging.

The demand for TMC´s services is constantly growing and therefore TMC needs to hire more experienced radiologists, especially within oncoradiology, neurology and muskuletal radiology.

The demands are also increasing for “on-call” services for many hospitals including 10 Danish hospitals at present – where radiologists with authorization from Denmark, for example, can report emergency cases during the night-time – which is daytime in Australia.

Future plans for TMC include extending the TMC on-call services to more hospitals in Europe from new offices in New Zealand and Japan.

Links:

Articles Dagens medicin “Mangel på specialiserede radiologer driver væksten hos TMC” – 17´th June 2022

Articles Dagens medicin “Den perfekte storm’ giver TMC vind i sejlene” – 30´th of September 2022

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ECR 2022: TMC was there!

After 2 years of COVID-19 pandemic, ECR is back in Vienna, but for the first time ever, during summertime. The TMC Unilabs AI Centre of Excellence attended the largest radiology congress in Europe with two aims in mind: to strengthen the relationships with our current partners and get updates on the state-of-the-art AI solutions and catch glimpses of what’s coming next.

The attendance was quite small compared to previous years being this the middle of the holiday period. However, there was a silver lining to this: all the vendors were there and that meant more time for them to spend with us.

As soon as the congress started, we announced our partnership with Qure.AI. This project to help triage normal from abnormal Chest X-rays and help improve reporting efficiency, went live at the end of June. During the next months we will monitor the impact of this solution in our UK elective service, and we expect that for ECR 2023, we will be coming back to explain our successful collaboration.

Henrik Agrell, CEO of Telemedicine Clinic, was a panellist for the talk The Future of Radiology: AI or Teleradiology? He quickly stated that the “or” of the title should be changed into “and” as he believes that AI is the key to improve reporting workflows and deal with the ever-increasing volumes and the capacity shortages.

Thomas Lindahl, Unilabs Sweden Medical Director, spoke about our partnership with Subtle Medical, a healthcare technology company using artificial intelligence for faster and higher quality MRI, to further improve the quality and efficiency of our MRI imaging. The solution, which is already rolled out in Sweden having a significant impact in our work. More often than not, we talk about the promise of AI and the high expectations around it, but this time, we were happy to focus on the tangible evidence on what these solutions are doing for us. During the talk, Thomas presented the efficiency gains measured during the pilot trial and gave real examples on how the images are read by the radiologists after AI enhancement.  

As for what the future holds, what we have been able to see is an increasing trend on comprehensive AI solutions. This means, that during the coming years, more AI solutions will focus on detecting multiple pathologies instead of a specific acute one. These kinds of solutions have a huge potential for us, since they would allow us to quickly identify the cases that have no relevant abnormalities, clear them quickly, and dedicate more resources to complex cases with pathologies.

We have also noticed that AI vendors understand that the only way to deliver a well-rounded solution is a full, seamless integration. They understand our needs and are willing to tweak their solutions to adapt to what we need.

To sum it up, ECR 2022 was intense, warm, and fun! Plenty of action points and multiple follow-up meetings will be required, but the objective is very clear. Come back next year with more success stories to tell.

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Unilabs signs on Qure.ai for triaging chest X-rays

Unilabs, the leading diagnostic services provider, announced a partnership with Qure.ai, a market leader in medical artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. Through this partnership, Unilabs will be deploying Qure’s AI solution to aid in the classification of chest X-rays into normal and abnormal exams. The solution will initially be implemented and piloted in Unilabs TMC’s Elective UK Service arm to help increase the capacity and optimise radiology workflow.

“This is yet another important milestone of the Unilabs AI Centre of Excellence and a testimony of our efforts to continue to implement AI solutions and futureproof our radiology business,” said Unilabs Chief Medical and Operations Officer Dr Christian Rebhan. “Qure.ai’s AI-enabled chest X-ray solution will aid us in the triaging of incoming cases, reducing the reading time for unremarkable chest X-rays by 25 to 50%.” 

Qure.ai’s CE-certified chest X-ray solution, qXR, will help identify which cases are clear of clinically relevant findings, allowing radiologists to detect them even before they open the case. Approximately, 50% of the chest X-rays are unremarkable and need to be completed quickly so the radiologists can free up capacity and focus their attention to those exams that have relevant findings.

Speaking about the partnership, Prashant Warier, CEO and Founder of Qure.ai, said, “As an early adopter of AI tools in Emergency Radiology, Unilabs’ TMC has already established clear dominance in the segment. We are excited to work with a global leader striving to bring out the best in health tech. We consider the EU among our crucial markets for the company and see immense potential in our partnership with Unilabs to scale new heights in the field of AI for teleradiology across the region. This partnership will reinforce our presence in the UK and will mark our expansion into other European regions.”   Qure.ai’s chest X-ray software can detect multiple lung abnormalities in under one minute. It can accurately assess radiological findings suggestive of a host of lung diseases, including pneumonia, COPD, TB, and heart failure, among others.

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Unilabs Sweden Launches Subtle Medical’s AI-powered Imaging Technology to Further Bolster Patient Care

Geneva, 6 July 2022: Unilabs, the leading diagnostic services provider, announced a partnership with Subtle Medical, a healthcare technology company using artificial intelligence for faster and higher quality MRI, to further improve the quality and efficiency of their MRI imaging. The solution, which will first be rolled out in Sweden, will boost Unilabs’ MRI programme to provide industry-leading productivity and an even more superior patient experience.

“Unilabs is dedicated to investing in healthcare innovation for the benefit of all of our patients. Having safe, clinically validated, state-of-the-art tools for improved image acquisition is key in the practice of modern radiology,” said Dr Thomas Lindahl, Medical Director Unilabs Sweden. “The SubtleMR solution will assist our radiologists in performing high-quality imaging more efficiently.”

SubtleMR™ is an AI-powered software that improves image quality from upwards of 60% faster scan times.  The software has been clinically validated in multiple peer-reviewed journals showing clinical quality and integrity across diverse sites, scanners, and patients.

SubtleMR™ enables centres to optimise workflows while improving the patient’s imaging journey by reducing the amount of time spent in the scanner.

“We could not be more pleased that Unilabs has adopted SubtleMR,” said Josh Gurewitz, Chief Commercial Officer for Subtle Medical.  “Our unique technology not only supports a better patient experience from less time in the imaging suite but also increases operational workflow efficiencies that allow Unilabs to boost their already efficient imaging programme. We look forward to a long partnership with Unilabs.” To hear Dr. Lindahl speak on behalf of the new partnership and meet with the Subtle Medical team, attend the Satellite Symposia hosted by Subtle Medical at ECR in Vienna, Austria on Friday, July 15th at 12:30. RSVP here.

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Unilabs uses Mindpeak’s AI Software in the Clinical Routine

Geneva, 30 June 2022: Unilabs, the leading diagnostic services provider, now brought Mindpeak’s AI solutions into the clinical routine to speed up breast cancer diagnosis and make it more accurate.

“At Unilabs, we know time is at the essence when dealing with breast cancer, that it’s why we have been partnering with Mindpeak since March to cut reporting time,” said Unilabs Chief Medical and Operations Officer Dr Christian Rebhan. “The IKWG-guideline for scoring Ki-67 in breast cancer requires much more manual work by pathologists, and Sweden was the first country to adopt it. Fortunately, the Mindpeak‘s AI solution we have in place decreases the time needed per case by 80% or more, which allows us to better position ourselves as a reference centre for sent-in samples.”

Diagnosing breast cancer involves the detection and quantification of immunohistochemically stained breast tumour cells. This critical task takes a lot of time, and with the IKWG-guideline for “global scoring” the time needed at least triples if done manually.

“We are very pleased that our state-of-the-art AI tools with deep workflow integration are now used in clinical routine at Unilabs,” said Felix Faber, CEO of Mindpeak.  “Mindpeak’s AI solution reduces the reporting time to just a fraction while at the same time following the new guideline.”

Initially started at Unilabs St Göran’s lab in Stockholm, and rolled out in other parts of Sweden, Mindpeak’s AI software will progressively be introduced to other countries where Unilabs is present.

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Perfusion CT – An Interview with Dr. Emily Clewett

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CT perfusion, along with CT angiography (CTA), can be a very important adjunct when treating strokes as opposed to conventional unenhanced CT brain imaging. Emily Clewett, Head of Section of Emergency Radiology Scandinavia, and the emergency senior clinical advisor for the AI Centre of Excellence has led her team to include CT perfusion in the routine workout of stroke patients for selected client hospitals in Sweden. Emily has been working on this project for a year now, so it is about time to ask her some questions about it:

What is Perfusion CT and why is it important in stroke diagnosis?

EC: In a stroke setting, it is vital to provide treatment as soon as possible – ‘time is brain’. We use several methods to find the cause of the patients’ symptoms, where the plain (non-contrast) CT head allows us to spot bleeds or established infarcts and the CT angiogram depicts the site of occlusion (blood clot).

The next level in stroke diagnostics is the CT perfusion, adding information about how much of the brain is at risk if the clot isn´t removed and helping the neuro-interventionists with selecting the patients who would best benefit from an endovascular procedure for the mechanic removal of the thrombus (some patients are treated only medically, with thrombus-dissolving medications). The perfusion scan is obtained after injection of intravenous contrast agent; the CT scanner acquires images of the same area of the brain at different timepoints, measuring the inflow of contrast agent and thus adding a temporal dimension.


Acute infarct on plain CT head


Occlusion (blood clot) on CT Angiogram


Perfusion scan showing established infarct (red, bottom right) vs area, which is ischaemic, but not yet infarcted, and thus salvable (yellow, bottom right)

 

Which role do Artificial Intelligence (AI) and post-processing software play in the interpretation of CT perfusion?

EC: The Emergency section has been an early adopter of AI-based diagnostic tools for the interpretation of CT head. A stroke with a bleed requires very different treatment from one with a blood clot, and it is vital that the radiologist identifies even the smallest of bleedings At Telemedicine Clinic, AI solutions help in ensuring this is done correctly

The images from a CT perfusion scan must be post-processed; this can be done manually or using special software with an automated workflow. There are AI software capable of processing perfusion scans, an emerging and exciting field in Sweden right now!

 

What challenges did you encounter when introducing this new diagnostic service? 

EC: While CT perfusion imaging has been around for quite some time, it is usually reported by highly specialized neuroradiologists. We have worked intensively to train our radiologist in this particular method. With the help of our Swedish client Örebro University Hospital which is pioneering the stroke care / teleradiology synergy, we created a portfolio of anonymised practice cases complete with reports and tutorials. To guarantee the highest level of quality and safety, we use prospective double reading for all stroke pathway cases, including those with CT perfusion images, which means all emergency reports are signed by two radiologists before being distributed.

 

Do you see this as a service that will become more popular and offered to more client hospitals?

EC: A couple of years ago new national guidelines were presented in Sweden, suggesting more stroke patients can benefit from endovascular mechanical clot removal. Perfusion scans are vital for patient selection, and we are currently seeing more frequent requests for this service. It is our goal to eventually be able to offer perfusion reporting to all our clients.

 

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Unilabs signs an agreement with AI provider Mindpeak, further bolstering its breast cancer offering

Geneva, 30 March 2022: Unilabs, the leading diagnostic services provider, has signed an agreement with Mindpeak, an AI solutions provider for digital pathology. Mindpeak’s AI technology will speed up breast cancer screening and make it more accurate.

“At Unilabs, we are continuously improving the quality and efficiency of our diagnostics capabilities by investing in the best available technology,” said Unilabs Chief Medical and Operations Officer Dr Christian Rebhan. “This development will transform the way pathologists work and will allow us to better serve our customers.”

The deployment has started at Unilabs St Göran’s lab in Stockholm, with the first cases read. The technology will be progressively rolled out in other parts of Sweden before being deployed in other Unilabs’ countries.

Diagnosing breast cancer involves the detection and quantification of immunohistochemically stained breast tumour cells, a critical task that is currently done manually, and takes a lot of time. Mindpeak AI helps pathologists count these cells, cutting reporting time by an estimated 60% and ensuring results can be reproduced to the same quality on every occasion.

One of the most critical factors with breast cancer is time. For patients, the integration of Mindpeak means faster diagnosis. And of course the sooner the treatment can begin, the better the prognosis.

“We are very pleased that Unilabs, one of the world’s largest diagnostics groups, chose our state-of-the-art AI-based diagnostic tools. Deep workflow integration of our AI tools will deliver significant efficiency gains and ultimately save lives,” said Felix Faber, CEO of Mindpeak.

 

Media contact:

Alistair Hammond, Director of Communications

e: Alistair.Hammond@Unilabs.com

t: +44 771 773 0441

 

About Unilabs

Unilabs is one of Europe’s largest diagnostics companies, offering a complete range of laboratory, pathology, and imaging services to patients all around the world. A leading digital champion covering the full diagnostic spectrum, Unilabs’ 12,000+ employees save lives every day.

Unilabs invests heavily in technology, equipment, and people, using digital technologies across its state-of-the-art laboratories and imaging institutes to improve the lives of close to 100 million people every year.

 

About Mindpeak 

Mindpeak, founded by Felix Faber and Dr. Tobias Lang, has been developing image analysis software for pathologists based on artificial intelligence since 2018. Partnering with several international laboratories and leading pathology service providers, Mindpeak is continuously expanding its product range and developing it into an indispensable component of digitized pathology workflows with focus on aiding pathologists in primary diagnostics (first read).

Mindpeak’s AI tools work out-of-the-box with real-life image variability and are already integrated into a large and growing number of workflow platforms allowing for a seamless user experience in daily routine.

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Dubai Health Forum 2022: The future is now

Dubai Health Forum 2022: The future is now

 

Ernest Montañà Ortiz, the TMC Unilabs AI Project Manager was invited to attend the 2022 Dubai Health Forum (DHF) in its fourth edition, sponsored by Unilabs Middle East and explains:

“Since its launch in 2017, the Dubai Health Forum has become an annual gathering for healthcare leaders, professionals, and the community. It gathers many international and local decision makers, healthcare leaders, industry experts, innovators, health institutions and organizations representing the wide spectrum of healthcare.

With a 2-day program, the forum holds several workshops, seminars, and discussion panels, where the participants will trace on a wide range of subjects like Dubai Care Model, Digital Health, Space Medicine, Value -based care and Health Economics.

Landing in Dubai feels like landing 100 years further in time, instead of 5000 km away from Barcelona. On March 2nd I had the chance to present the AI Centre of Excellence, our projects, and our approach to AI in front of the health authorities and professionals of Dubai. I decided to focus on real examples from our projects to bring the following message to the audience: AI is not just potential anymore, is a reality and is happening now in front of our eyes.

This idea was present at other health talks as well where other speakers, mostly doctors that use AI in their daily practice, spoke. It was reassuring that when they were discussing some of their cases, they were using several tools that we have already deployed, or we are planning to use soon.

On March 3rd we discussed how the landscape of the Health Sector is going to look like in 50 years. It is expected that by then, the fertility rates will go down significantly, people will massively move to the cities… Dubai has a very agile and hands-on approach to these changes: Let’s get there before the future catches up with us. AI is a crucial part of their strategy, and they are ready to start testing and deploying different solutions.

My stay here has been an amazing experience. I wish the days had lasted 50 hours, so much to do, so much to learn. Thanks a lot, to our Unilabs Middle East colleagues for inviting me and for making this work trip, a life experience.”

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TMC Unilabs appoints Prof. Erik Ranschaert as Radiology AI Solutions Advisor

The Unilabs AI Centre of Excellence, managed by the leading teleradiology provider TMC, has appointed Prof. Erik Ranschaert as Radiology AI Solutions Advisor. Ranschaert joins the Unilabs AI Centre of Excellence as an external consultant.

Ranschaert is Visiting Professor of Radiology at the University of Ghent, former President of the European Society of Medical Imaging Informatics (EuSoMII), and former Chairman of the. ESR e-Health and Informatics Subcommittee.

“We are very excited to welcome Erik to the team. His support will super-charge our efforts to continue to implement AI solutions and futureproof our radiology business,” said Henrik Agrell, CEO of TMC, the Unilabs company leading the AI Centre of Excellence. “His academic experience in this area is strong, and he also has a unique hands-on perspective, which is of great value to move AI solutions off the drawing board and into real clinical practice.”

Prof. Erik Ranschaert is a radiologist and expert in the healthcare and imaging informatics area. His specialties include digital networking and implementation of AI-based applications. He was also one of the pioneers in the field of teleradiology in Europe.

“AI is very much here to stay, and is already helping radiologists to provide more accurate and timely services, thereby increasing their value in the pathway of diagnosis and treatment of patients,” said Prof. Erik Ranschaert. “I am delighted to join Unilabs and TMC, one of the world leaders in telemedicine, to share my expertise and help drive progress.”      

 

Media contacts:

Xenia Wierzbicki, Communications Manager

e: xwierzbicki@telemedicineclinic.com  

 

About TMC

TMC, part of Unilabs, is a leading European provider of high-quality teleradiology services, with clients in Scandinavia, the UK, and Germany. In 2021, TMC supported more than 145 hospitals delivering sub-specialist elective and emergency services 24/7.

About Unilabs

Unilabs is one of Europe’s largest diagnostics companies, offering a complete range of laboratory, pathology, and imaging services to patients all around the world. A leading digital champion covering the full diagnostic spectrum, Unilabs’ 12,000+ employees save lives every day.

Unilabs is fully engaged in the fight against Covid-19 – investing heavily in technology, equipment, and people to deliver fast, reliable Covid-19 tests. Using dedicated new labs in Portugal, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK and the UAE, Unilabs’ capacity is more than 750,000 Covid-19 tests per week.

About Unilabs AI Centre of Excellence

Unilabs AI Centre of Excellence ensures the best AI solutions in the market for radiology and pathology are rigorously evaluated and implemented providing they have a positive impact on quality and efficiency. By being an early adopter of the advantages AI can offer, Unilabs will continue to be the provider of choice for radiology and pathology services.

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TMC secure even higher radiology quality with now 4 implemented AI solutions

Delivering quality healthcare in the 21st century requires state-of-the-art diagnostic solutions to ensure patients get access to the best treatment possible. TMC is proud of having implemented 4 AI solutions within the last year that augment the skill and experience of our radiologists and help to detect hard-to-find pathologies and thereby making the diagnoses even more reliable.

In the TMC Emergency section, Aidoc’s radiology AI solution sifts through CT images, automatically identifying potential critical findings, such as acute intracranial haemorrhages or acute/incidental pulmonary emboli. The solution has shown high accuracy and ease of use which leads to more accurate reports, increased reader confidence and potentially fewer missed pathologies. This is especially valuable as it can help to point to very subtle and critical findings that could be overlooked. Once the case has been processed by AI, the cases with findings are flagged in the reporting platform (Optemis) and the status of the exam is raised so that the case will be picked up sooner.

The industry-leading artificial intelligence from Aidence is supporting the TMC lung cancer screening service. Around three-quarters of lung cancer cases are diagnosed at a late stage in the UK and 10-year survival is poor (10%), but 79% is preventable (according to www.cancerresearchuk.org). The  AI tool from Aidence, Veye Lung Nodules, helps identify any suspected lung nodules (even nodules as small as 3mm). This AI solution facilitates early lung cancer detection and can thus help save patients’ lives.  Approximately 10,000 cases will be analysed by Aidence’s AI solution this year. It can be expected that about 10% of the patients will have a positive finding. (According to Gareth Davies, TMC UK Medical Director).

Aidence is marking a lung nodule in the images on the right (CT Thorax)

 

Aidoc highlightings a subdural haematoma (red color).

 

 

 

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