The Story of Kettering Health
A leading faith based, not-for-profit hospital system in
southwest Ohio, Kettering Health has been providing quality
patient care and cancer screening at its world-class cancer centers for 48
years. The team at Kettering takes great pride in ensuring that its facilities
are equipped with the latest in state-of-the-art technology that empowers their
team to provide the best possible patient care.
“About three years ago we set upon a journey at Kettering
to upgrade our breast centers, with the goal of creating world-class facilities
with the most top-of-the-line technologies,” said Sally Grady, director of
Kettering Health Breast Centers.
The first step was to upgrade all of Kettering’s 14
breast centers with new technology and to evaluate the effectiveness of ProFound AI compared to another
AI solution they had also been using on some of their mammography units. After
extensive research, the team at Kettering chose ProFound AI as its AI solution
for digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT), and ultimately decided to implement
this technology across all of their locations.
“ProFound AI is a game changer. Other AI technologies for
DBT seem like smoke and mirrors when compared with ProFound AI. It is clearly
the most advanced technology of its kind on the market, and we found it was
going to fit well within the other components we offer in our screening
program.”
ProFound AI for DBT was the world’s first software for
DBT with artificial intelligence (AI) to be FDA-cleared. Designed to be used
concurrently by radiologists reading 3D mammography, the technology was trained
with the latest in deep-learning AI to detect malignant soft tissue densities
and calcifications with unrivaled accuracy. It is the only software of its kind
that rapidly and accurately analyzes each DBT image, or slice, and provides
radiologists with crucial information, such as Certainty of Finding lesion and
Case Scores, which assists in prioritizing caseloads and clinical decision-making.
Clinically proven to improve radiologists’ sensitivity by 8%, reduce false
positives and unnecessary patient recall rates by 7.2%, and slash reading time
by 52.7%[i],
only ProFound AI offers unmatched benefits to clinicians and patients alike.
“There was some initial skepticism among some
radiologists on the team based on their prior experiences with 2D
computer-aided detection technologies,” said Meghan Musser, DO, medical
director for breast imaging at Kettering Health. “But after a short period of
time we began to really trust the technology. It’s like having a second set of
eyes that ensures you take a closer look.”
Soon after adopting the technology, the team found that
ProFound AI helped to improve both accuracy and efficiency, which ultimately enhanced patient care.
“Improving accuracy and efficiency is key. Every time a
patient is called back, that woman assumes she has cancer,” said Grady. “Reducing false positives and
callbacks is a huge benefit, not only to our patients but to our technologists
and radiologists. We only want to call back the women who really need it, and
ProFound AI can help our team differentiate that and read mammograms more
accurately.”
“ProFound AI helps to improve clinical confidence while
reading mammograms, which then translates into the discussion I have with the patient,” added Dr.
Musser. “For example, if I am on the fence about whether to recommend a biopsy or follow up, ProFound AI’s
Case Scores provide me with crucial information that can help to make that determination.
This also empowers me to have a better-informed discussion with the patient and
helps them to feel more confident in my recommendations as well.”
Detecting the Type of Cancers Radiologists Fear the
Most
In addition to improving workflow and reading accuracy,
the team at Kettering noted that ProFound AI was particularly helpful in spotting small, subtle
lesions that might not stand out to the naked eye.
“Most breast radiologists can easily spot a large mass or
a big area of distortion, but it is always possible with these very large DBT studies that there may be a
smaller tumor that is more difficult to detect,” said Dr. Musser. “ProFound AI
is particularly helpful in finding subtle lesions, such as invasive lobular
cancers, which tend to be the type of cancers radiologists fear the most,
simply because they can be so difficult to detect.”
The team confirmed this to be true while auditing past
cases about two years after adopting ProFound AI.
“We were hoping to determine whether ProFound AI detected
some of the cancers that we had later deemed as interval breast cancers, or cancers that
develop between screenings,” added Dr. Musser. “In a good portion of those cases, we confirmed ProFound
AI did detect something, even if it was subtle, which only further increased our confidence in the
technology.”
Expanded Rollout Solidifies Kettering’s Position as
Leading Facility for Breast Health Although the team at Kettering initially only offered
breast cancer screening with ProFound AI at select locations, Grady soon made the decision to expand access
to this technology across its entire enterprise of facilities.
“We felt it was critical to offer this potentially
lifesaving technology to all of our patients,” said Grady. “We felt offering it
to only some of our patients was almost creating a disparity of sorts, and we
felt that the value this technology offers was something we wanted to offer to
every woman who is screened for breast cancer at one of our centers.”
As one of the first in the area to adopt AI for breast
cancer screening, Kettering also found adopting ProFound AI helped to elevate awareness of the hospital
and position it as a leading facility in the community with the most cutting-edge advancements.
“Patients are always looking for a center that offers the
absolute best in patient care,” added Grady. “Having ProFound AI really helps
to set us apart from other facilities in the area; while we upgraded all of our
breast screening technology, ProFound AI is truly the icing on the cake.”
Dr. Musser adds, “ProFound AI has been something that we
as radiologists have started to depend on and really want. Now that we have it available for all
our patients coming in, it makes a big difference in our reading efficiency and in the care that we offer.
Even the most skeptical of our breast radiologists are now on board with
ProFound AI.”
Read more of Kettering’s
story or our other customer case studies
to discover how iCAD’s technology is enhancing patient care for our customers
across the U.S. and worldwide.
[i] 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