Computer software that enhances plain chest x-rays and identifies areas that need further work-up is now being tested in China and could be available in the United States in the next year or two.
Perhaps more importantly, its developers are hopeful that, if the new technology gets U.S. approval, insurance companies will be willing to foot the bill.
The computer-aided detection (CAD) tool by Kodak was designed to improve lung cancer screening.
According to David Faller, general manager of CAD Business in Kodak’s Health Group, the only affordable way to test large populations for lung cancer at the current time is by chest x-ray, which can miss small or difficult to find lesions behind ribs.
Although CT scans solve these problems, they take up to 20 minutes to perform, more than an hour to analyze, and are too expensive and time-consuming to be used in the general population.
Faller said Kodak’s new product enhances a normal x-ray in under a minute, allowing radiologists to see if there are “areas of interest” that require more extensive work-up. While there are other x-ray/CAD screening tools on the market, Faller said the Kodak system was faster, could be added to current equipment, and analyzes images in a way that allows radiologists to integrate the additional pictures into their normal workflow.
Kodak is testing the system in China, and it will be marketed there in early 2007, along with CAD-enhanced full-field digital mammography systems that can integrate with GE and Siemens mammography machines and a CAD improvement for bone mineral density testing that can analyze a digital x-ray of a woman’s hand. Kodak plans to bring all three products to the United States as soon as possible, company representatives said.
Kodak’s digital mammography is reported to increase early detection of potential breast cancer by almost 40% — bringing detection forward almost 15 months. You might hope the whole package gets here as soon as possible — including approval by the always beloved insurance industry.
Cool.
And testing it in China because…
that’s where the system is being made?
the Chinese are heavier smokers?
in case of problems, the Chinese are less litigious?
in case of problems the Chinese are more expendable?
Though not true of all aspects of their society — most likely testing in China is facilitated by a government that wants to promote profits, health and new technology that will result in factories being built there.
Stateside, you need to pay off the appropriate lobbyists and members of Congress and the White House — before you even get near the FDA.
Not that Kodak wouldn’t. It’s probably just faster the way they’re doing it.
How many people would live longer if we had this technology here and now? It’s nice to know that in the land of liberty we are free to choose whatever the FDA has finally ruled is probably ok for us.
This is very old news, it’s been around in the USA since the 1980s. I used to install MRI in hospitals.
Caution; when ever you put a filter on any image you corrupt the fidelity (losing information) of the original image to highlight certain aspects. As long as the Radiologist looks closely at the original untouched image, along with the filtered image, then nothing is being missed. Filters never add information to an image, they only remove or modify image information.
That one or two pixels the filter removes/modifies can be the beginnings of a cancer.