iCAD to Host Educational Roundtable to Help Clinicians and Facilities Recover from COVID-19 Impact
Leading experts to
discuss novel AI technology helping them overcome pandemic-related challenges
including substantial mammography backlog
NASHUA, N.H. –
September 9, 2021 – iCAD, Inc. (NASDAQ: ICAD), a
global medical technology leader providing innovative cancer detection and
therapy solutions, today announced that it will host an educational roundtable
event to help clinicians and their facilities recover from the impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic. Titled “Pandemic Recovery: How New Technology Can Support Clinicians and Patients in the Aftermath of COVID-19,” the free event will
take place on September 14, 2021, at 7 pm ET/4 pm PT. Visit this link to register.
“Clinicians are in need of new solutions to navigate today’s
challenges,” said Stacey Stevens, President of iCAD. “Mammography dropped by as
much as 92% in some areas at the height of the pandemic, creating a massive
mammography backlog,[1]
but as more Americans are becoming vaccinated, women have begun to return to
imaging centers for cancer screening. This educational roundtable features
leading experts who will discuss their experiences with pandemic-related
clinical, economic and volume-based challenges, as well as best practices on
leveraging new technology—such as ProFound AI®—to help overcome these hurdles.”
The event will feature leading specialists in breast cancer detection
and treatment, including:
- Angela Fried, MD, Director of Breast Imaging at SimonMed Imaging, Daly
City, CA - Diana James, MD, PhD, Radiologist, Director of Breast Imaging at
Jefferson Radiology, Hartford, CT - Joshua A. Nepute, MD, Radiologist, IU Health Frankfort, IU Health
Arnett, IU Health White Memorial, Lafayette, IN - Neesha Patel, MD, Director of Breast Imaging and Residency and
Clerkship Academic Director, Kings County Hospital, SUNY Downstate - Rakesh Patel, MD (Moderator), Managing Partner, Precision Cancer
Specialists, Inc. Chair, Breast Cancer Program, Good Samaritan Hospital, Los
Gatos, CA - Barry Rosen, MD FACS, Medical Director, Advocate Good Shepherd
Hospital, Breast Center Assistant Professor, University of Illinois College of
Medicine
“We
began the implementation of ProFound AI at the end of 2019 and completed the
rollout in the middle of the pandemic, in mid-2020. Just before that time, in
mid-2019, we converted our practice to 100% tomosynthesis,” said Dr. James. “We
are typically a very high-volume practice reading more than 50,000 screening
mammograms per year, and the addition of a ‘second reader’ via ProFound AI
helped our radiologists absorb our increased workload. We paused our screening
mammogram program per Society of Breast Imaging (SBI) recommendations during
the beginning of the pandemic, but were quickly back to full plus volume by
August 2020. ProFound AI helped us to read those cases quickly with the
confidence that we were not missing cancers.”
“After
a year of using it, I’ve come to an eye-opening realization: ProFound AI is
looking at things that we clinicians don’t necessarily recognize as signs of
cancer,” added Dr. Fried. “For example, I have seen this technology identify
undetectable breast cancer cases one year earlier. We’ve really gotten to trust
it, and I am confident that more of those subtle, obscured lesions will be
picked up earlier because of this.”
ProFound AI is a high-performance, deep-learning,
workflow solution trained to detect malignant soft tissue densities and
calcifications. ProFound AI for Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) became the
first 3D tomosynthesis software using artificial intelligence (AI) to be FDA
cleared in December 2018. The
software is also available for 2D full-field digital mammography (FFDM). In a reader study published in Radiology: Artificial
Intelligence,
ProFound AI for DBT was shown to offer clinically proven time-savings benefits
to radiologists, reducing reading time by 52.7%, improving radiologist sensitivity
by 8%, and reducing false positives and unnecessary patient recall rates by
7.2%.[2]
“We saw our volume of mammography screenings decrease
significantly during the pandemic however, since this past spring, our volume
has skyrocketed,” said Dr. Nepute. “We are at least 10% above our pre-pandemic
levels at this time, which has led to feelings of burnout by many of our
radiologists, but ProFound AI has been a reliable backup for our team, as it
helps to ensure we’re performing at an optimum level and calling back only
those patients who need additional imaging.”
“We
are now busier than ever, as many patients who didn’t get screened during the
pandemic are coming back,” said Dr. Neesha Patel. “We have a significant
backlog—in fact, we’re booking screenings into January and February of 2022
right now. ProFound AI helps to boost our confidence – it’s akin to someone
looking over my shoulder while I read, so I know I’m not the only one looking
at these images.”
Built with the latest in deep-learning technology,
ProFound AI for DBT rapidly analyzes each tomosynthesis image, detecting
malignant soft tissue densities. Certainty
of Finding and Case Scores are relative scores computed by the ProFound AI
algorithm and represent its confidence that a detection or case is malignant.
The Certainty of Finding scores help radiologists by aiding in clinical
decision making. Case Scores, which are assigned to each case by the algorithm,
help clinicians to gain a sense of case complexity, which may be useful for
prioritizing the reading work list.
“Clinicians are struggling to manage the backlog of women who need to
make up for lost time, but it’s clear that ProFound AI is playing a role in
helping facilities overcome these challenges,” added Stevens. “ProFound AI Risk may also play an integral part in the
COVID-19 recovery process for imaging facilities, as it provides clinicians
critical information regarding patients’ individual risks of developing breast
cancer, which may help them to personalize screening regimens. iCAD is proud to be an
integral partner in helping providers and facilities recover from the impact of
the COVID-19 pandemic and provide the highest quality care to patients.”
ProFound AI Version 3.0 for Digital Breast Tomosynthesis
(DBT) was recently cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in
March 2021. Compared to previous versions of the software, the ProFound AI 3.0
algorithm offers up to a 10% improvement in specificity performance and up to
1% improvement in sensitivity.[3] The latest version of the platform also offers up to
40% faster processing on the new PowerLook platform.1 ProFound AI
Version 3.0 was developed using over five million images from 30,000 cases,
including almost 8,000 biopsy-proven cancers, and validated on approximately
one million images from 3,500 cases that included 1,200 biopsy-proven cancers.
iCAD’s Breast
Health Solutions suite also includes ProFound AI for 2D Mammography, ProFound
AI Risk, the world’s first and only clinical decision support tool that
provides an accurate two-year, breast cancer risk estimation that is truly
personalized for each woman, based only on a screening mammogram,[4] and software to evaluate breast
density.
About iCAD, Inc.
Headquartered
in Nashua, NH, iCAD is a global medical technology
leader providing innovative cancer detection and therapy solutions. For
more information, visit www.icadmed.com and www.xoftinc.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain
statements contained in this News Release constitute “forward-looking
statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995, including statements about the benefits of the Company’s products and future
prospects for the Company’s technology platforms and products. Such
forward-looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance
or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future
results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such
forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited, to the
Company’s ability to achieve business and strategic objectives, the willingness
of patients to undergo mammography screening in light of risks of potential
exposure to Covid-19, whether mammography screening will be treated as an
essential procedure, whether ProFound AI will improve reading
efficiency, improve specificity and sensitivity, reduce false
positives and otherwise prove to be more beneficial for patients and
clinicians, the impact of supply and manufacturing constraints or
difficulties on our ability to fulfill our orders, uncertainty of future sales
levels, to defend itself in litigation matters, protection of patents and other
proprietary rights, product market acceptance, possible technological
obsolescence of products, increased competition, government regulation, changes
in Medicare or other reimbursement policies, risks relating to our existing and
future debt obligations, competitive factors, the effects of a decline in the
economy or markets served by the Company; and other risks detailed in the
Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The words
“believe,” “demonstrate,” “intend,” “expect,” “estimate,” “will,” “continue,”
“anticipate,” “likely,” “seek,” and similar expressions identify
forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance
on those forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date the
statement was made. The Company is under no obligation to provide any updates
to any information contained in this release. For additional disclosure
regarding these and other risks faced by iCAD, please see the disclosure
contained in our public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
available on the Investors section of our website at http://www.icadmed.com and
on the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov.
Contacts:
Media inquiries:
Jessica Burns, iCAD
+1-201-423-4492
Investor Relations:
Jeremy Feffer,
LifeSci Advisors
+1-212-915-2568
[1] Duszak, Richard, et al.
Characteristics of COVID-19 Community Practice Declines in Noninvasive
Diagnostic Imaging Professional Work. Journal of the American College of
Radiology: JACR, vol. 17, no. 11, 2020, pp. 1453-1459. Accessed via https://www.jacr.org/article/S1546-1440(20)30742-0/fulltext
[2] Conant, E et al. (2019). Improving
Accuracy and Efficiency with Concurrent Use of Artificial Intelligence for
Digital Breast Tomosynthesis. Radiology: Artificial Intelligence. 1 (4).
Accessed via https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/10.1148/ryai.2019180096
[3] iCAD data on file. Standalone
performance varies by vendor. FDA Cleared.
[4] Eriksson M, Czene K, Strand F, et al.
Identification of Women at High Risk of Breast Cancer Who Need Supplemental
Screening. [published online ahead of print September 8, 2020]. Radiology.
Accessed via https://doi.org/10.1148/radiol.2020201620