Description du projet
Des diagnostics de l’ostéoporose plus rapides et plus précis
En tant que maladie des os la plus courante chez l’être humain, l’ostéoporose constitue un problème de santé majeur. Il est cependant possible de la prévenir et de la traiter. Si rien n’est fait, l’ostéoporose peut toutefois provoquer de graves fractures osseuses, notamment au niveau des hanches et de la colonne vertébrale, causant d’intenses douleurs et de sévères handicaps. Un diagnostic rapide est vital, mais s’avère freiné par des méthodes de dépistages inefficaces. Dans ce contexte, le projet BoneScreen, financé par l’UE, compte lancer une méthode entièrement automatisée d’évaluation des données existantes de tomographie informatique des patients. Elle permettra de calculer la densité minérale osseuse volumétrique afin de prédire le risque de fracture, et s’appliquera de manière précise, non invasive, entièrement étalonnée et confortable pour un diagnostic clair et rapide d’ostéoporose.
Objectif
Worldwide, an osteoporotic fracture occurs every three seconds; most of them in Europe, where the economic burden has been estimated at €37 billion per year and lost years of life surpass most major cancers. This is hard to comprehend, given that osteoporosis is a preventable, treatable disease, if diagnosed at an early stage. As current state-of-the-art screening methods are neither sufficiently available nor accurate, there is an urgent need for readily available and accurate screening systems.
BoneScreen will fill this gap and provide a low-cost and accurate screening method, available for millions of patients. BoneScreen introduces a fully automated solution to evaluate existing computed tomography data of patients. BoneScreen will calculate volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD), the most reliable and accurate single predictor of a patient’s fracture risk. In contrast to existing methods, BoneScreen is fully automated; it is purely non-invasive and excludes any additional radiation dose or patient discomfort; it is fully calibrated, yielding high precision and allowing for the application of established diagnostic categories; it works for all vertebral levels, allowing for inclusion of scans with variable coverage. Additionally, the functionality of BoneScreen is easily extendable, e.g. for detecting fractures or metastasis.
The overall goal of this proposal is to initiate the start-up process for a company commercializing the research developments to date. Specific objectives are to (1) increase the technology readiness level of our current research software to reliably work in different hospital environments; in particular we will include an automated calibration, allowing for accurate processing in >98% of cases; (2) increase the awareness of the possibilities provided by such a screening tool, both in the academic and non-academic radiology community; and (3) develop a strategy for marketing and securing IPR.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-POC-LS - ERC Proof of Concept Lump Sum PilotInstitution d’accueil
81675 Muenchen
Allemagne