6 biggest Israeli hospitals use Aidoc software to read CT scans, firm announces
Startup’s artificial intelligence-based tech analyzes medical images after patients are scanned and flags radiologists if there are critical findings
Shoshanna Solomon was The Times of Israel's Startups and Business reporter
Aidoc, a maker of AI-based software that helps radiologists in their work, said on Wednesday that Israel’s six largest medical centers have begun using its technology to analyze CT scans to pinpoint critical conditions such as cerebral hemorrhage, pulmonary embolism, stroke and C-spine fractures.
The startup said that Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov) in Tel Aviv, Rabin Medical Center (Beilinson and Hasharon Hospitals) in Petah Tikva from the Clalit Group, Assuta Medical Centers and Shaare Zedek have joined Haim Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, the first hospital to implement the company’s solutions in Israel.
Professor Eli Konen, director of the imaging department at Sheba, said the hospital has been using the company’s solutions for over three years.
“Just this week the system alerted a patient with a pulmonary embolism – the radiologist had just finished a shift and was expected to review the scan the next day,” he said. Aidoc’s alert prioritized the scan to a radiologist who confirmed that this was an urgent case and immediately called the emergency room to make sure the patient was being treated. “Today, radiologists feel they have an ‘extra pair of eyes,’ which ensures that our patients receive the best care in the fastest time possible,” Konen said in a statement released by Aidoc.
Aidoc’s artificial intelligence-based software analyzes medical images after patients are scanned and notifies radiologists of unusual findings, to assist with prioritization of time-sensitive and potentially life-threatening cases. Its suite of solutions includes six FDA-cleared products for flagging acute abnormalities, including the detection of acute brain bleeds in CT scans. In May the FDA gave the startup a green light to start alerting radiologists if they have scanned somebody who, unknowingly, has coronavirus.
The six hospitals constitute a significant percentage of the medical system in Israel, Aidoc said.
“There is a combination of man and machine that together provide accurate and rapid diagnoses to our patients,” said Professor Jacob Sosna, director of the imaging department at Hadassah. “The use of technology by interns also improves their diagnostic ability and increases the confidence of physicians in their initial training stages.”
Aidoc was named one of Time magazine’s 50 Genius Companies in 2018.
