Bayer reinforces Commitment to Innovation in Radiology

In healthcare, and particularly medical imaging, innovation powered by artificial intelligence (AI) is needed more than ever. Dr. Konstanze Diefenbach, Head of Research and Development at Bayer, and Dr. Ankur Sharma, Head of Medical Affairs, Digital Radiology, explained to DI Europe how Bayer is helping to shape innovations to benefit patients and their treating physicians.

AI applications for medical imaging improve prioritization, lesion detection, quantification and productivity. Bayer‘s new cloud-hosted platform Calantic provides access to apps that integrate into standard medical imaging workflow.

„Increasingly, radiology departments are under enormous pressure with a significant rise in the medical imaging data.“ Dr. Konstanze Diefenbach, Head of Research and Development at Bayer

„Medical imaging plays a key role along the entire patient journey, in facilitating diagnosis, treatment decisions and monitoring the patients’ response to treatment,“ said Dr. Konstanze Diefenbach, Head of Research and Development for Radiology at Bayer. „Increasingly, radiology departments are under enormous pressure with a significant rise in the medical imaging data they need to assess, and innovative solutions are urgently needed.“

Pressure and workload are increasing along with the amount and complexity of imaging data triggered by technological advances and the growing demand for imaging procedures, driven by aging populations and changing lifestyles. In this context, AI has the potential to be part of the solution with the value proposition to support diagnosis and increase the throughput of radiological examinations.

Serving as a springboard for innovations, radiology AI is the fastest growing market segment within the overall global radiology market. Radiology AI is expected to continue growing dynamically, with a compounded estimated annual growth rate of more than 26 percent through 2026. As AI is making its way into clinical radiology practice, it is crucial that it gains the trust of experts.

Prof. Roland Wiest, Deputy Director of the Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology at Bern University in Switzerland, explained the importance of education to help drive adoption of AI in clinical practice.

„Appropriate training is key to successfully govern AI,“ he said. „Radiologists, not AI, remain in charge for patient care and need to acquire new skills to do their best for patients in the new ecosystem.“ Prof. Wiest is leading several educational initiatives aiming at driving medical, engineering, and practical capabilities in radiology to support the wider use of AI-based technologies.

Dr. Ankur Sharma, Head of Medical Affairs, Digital Radiology at Bayer is convinced that ‚radiology has always been at the forefront of digital innovation, and artificial intelligence in particular, has vast potential in medical imaging. Bayer‘s long established medical expertise and commitment to innovation across a multitude of diagnostic and therapeutic areas is what we will bring to the AI space in radiology, as a point of significant focus. „With Calantic our aim is to help shape the future of radiology, transform treatment outcomes, and patient care.“

„Our aim is to help shape the future of radiology, transform treatment outcomes, and patient care.“ Dr. Ankur Sharma, Head of Medical Affairs, Digital Radiology at Bayer

Aquiring Calantic, a suite to help radiologists

With its introduction of Calantic Digital Solutions, Bayer underlines the leadership in key radiology segments and its deep medical understanding across a multitude of diagnostic and therapeutic areas.

Calantic Digital Solutions is a suite of digital radiology AI-enabled applications which assist radiologists and their teams at critical steps within a patient‘s treatment journey. The vendor-neutral, cloud-hosted platform includes a growing number of applications designed to prioritisation, lesion detection and quantification as well as apps that automate routine tasks and measurements, improve the radiology suite‘s workflow, and free up time for radiologists and their teams.

The offering is orchestrated by body region, and procedure and initially focused on thoracic and neurological diseases, such as pulmonary nodule detection and triage of potential intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and large vessel occlusions (LVO). ICH and LVO can be associated with stroke. Bayer recently announced to partner with app developers Quantib, ClariPi, EXINI Diagnostics, Mediaire, Coreline, and ScreenPoint Medical to broaden the already available options on the platform, by including tools which aim to aid in neuro, cardiac, prostate and breast imaging. First launch markets include the US and several European countries.

https://www.bayer.com