Volpara Solutions and ScreenPoint Medical have announced that they had come to an agreement under which Volpara will sell ScreenPoint’s Transpara products to breast imaging clinics in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Asia.
Transpara is designed to assist radiologists with the reading of mammograms and is one of the first next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) applications for detecting breast cancer in screening mammograms to gain 510(k) clearance from the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) which was supported by the results of a multi-reader, multi-case reader study (Rodríguez-Ruiz A et al Detection of Breast Cancer with Mammography: Effect of an Artificial Intelligence Support System. Radiology. 2019; 290: 305. doi: 10.1148/radiol.2018181371). This study demonstrated that radiologists using Transpara significantly improved detection accuracy without increasing reading times and showed that radiologists’ performance consistently improved independently of their level of experience. In the ground-breaking publication that followed (Rodriguez-Ruiz A et al. Can we reduce the workload of mammographic screening by automatic identification of normal exams with artificial intelligence? A feasibilitystudy. Eur Radiol. 2019; 29(9): 4825. doi: 10.1007/s00330-019-06186-9), it was reported that when compared to 101 radiologists, the stand-alone performance (in terms of sensitivity and specificity) of Transpara was as accurate as the radiologisis. This suggests that the system gives an objective second opinion similar to that of a second radiologist. Transpara gained European regulatory approval (CE) for use with multi-vendor mammography (2018) and digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) images (2019) and is already installed at leading breast imaging centers in Europe.
“Based on the published research to date, we strongly believe that Transpara will deliver both improved mammographic cancer detection and enhanced workflow,” said Dr. Ralph Highnam, Volpara CEO. “We are delighted to have ScreenPoint join our common cause and bring this powerful software to our customers.”
Prof. Nico Karssemeijer, ScreenPoint Medical CEO, said: “I am excited that ScreenPoint and Volpara will now partner to bring Transpara to the United States and other markets, as Volpara is well established in the breast space globally. Together, the two companies will help breast care teams detect cancer earlier, streamline mammography reading, and personalize screening for women.”
Volpara Solutons
Wellington, New Zealand
Screenpoint Medical
Nijmegen, The Netherlands