AUTOMATED DIAGNOSTICS AND RADIOLOGICAL READING FROM LUMBAR SPINE MRI

Informations projet

CoLumbo

N° de convention de subvention: 876043

DOI

10.3030/876043

Projet clôturé

Date de signature de la CE 29 Juillet 2019

Date de début 1 Août 2019

Date de fin 31 Janvier 2020

Financé au titre de

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Coût total

€ 71 429,00

Contribution de l’UE

€ 50 000,00

Coordonné par

SMART SOFT
Bulgaria

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CoLumbo (AUTOMATED DIAGNOSTICS AND RADIOLOGICAL READING FROM LUMBAR SPINE MRI)

Période du rapport: 2019-08-01 au 2020-01-31

Résumé du contexte et des objectifs généraux du projet

Despite large number of AI application in recent years most of them are for 4 body areas – brain, heart, breast, lungs there is not automated solution for analysis and diagnostic for spine. Population of EU countries is ageing. Medical images steadily grow in number while there is a shortage of radiologists therefore radiologists are overloaded and have very limited time to review an exam. Purpose of CoLumbo is to perform analysis and diagnostic of MRI spinal exams in order to assist radiologists.

Travail effectué depuis le début du projet jusqu’à la fin de la période considérée dans le rapport et principaux résultats atteints jusqu’à présent

Smart Soft performed market analysis and estimated total number of existing MRI units is 36 000 of them one quarter in Europe and annually sold MRI units 5 000.
The company made several demos to industry representatives, physicians and scientists and also preformed informal interviews in order to receive their opinion about mostly desired device features and user options and will align with their requests and recommendations.
Smart Soft identified main reasons physicians refrain to use DL algorithms - the black box nature of the algorithms, fear of being replaced by AI and receiving too many data from the AI tools. While technical performance is important the physicians consider user friendly interface and outlook similar to ones they get used to are also important for them. Hospitals are the target customer and they prefer to purchase from large and renowned companies and brand loyalty is high.
Smart Soft has the necessary knowledge and expertise in the image processing and DL but insufficient financial resource slows down the development, also company is yet unknown on the healthcare market therefore marketing plan is prepared including advertising, demos and pilots to underline the unique features of Smart Soft CoLumbo.
Business model was updated since company decided to perform sales using several license types and several sales channels that be both direct and indirect, latter in cooperation with key partners.
Company will perform more tests with MRIs from different machines and protocols in order to further reduce risk from unknown protocol.

Progrès au-delà de l’état des connaissances et impact potentiel prévu (y compris l’impact socio-économique et les conséquences sociétales plus larges du projet jusqu’à présent)

The company will include new features in the software to increase the number of diagnosed pathology types, used protocols and to expand analyzed body area. User interface will be enhanced. Smart Soft will launch its automated clinical application for analysis of spinal images and negotiates pilots that will prove the significance and accuracy of performed analysis.

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