EDINBURGH, Scotland & KIBBUTZ SHEFAYIM, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Scottish digital transformation consultancy Storm ID and Israeli AI start-up Zebra Medical Vision have won a UK-Israel research and development competition with a proposal for a revolutionary, machine learning-driven model for early detection and prevention of osteoporosis to improve patient care and reduce healthcare costs. The collaboration will involve close engagement with clinical teams in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and Assuta Medical Centers.
Osteoporosis is a major public health concern that continues to grow in worldwide importance. Fragility fractures, defined as insufficiency fractures not related to high-impact trauma, are the major complication of this underdiagnosed and undertreated condition. Major osteoporotic fractures result in substantial morbidity and mortality, particularly for hip fractures, which is a major concern for an aging population.
Working in partnership, Storm ID and Zebra Medical Vision are developing a preventative care solution to identify people at risk of osteoporosis. Using ML/AI methodologies, the solution will analyze medical imaging data and patient records to help clinical teams identify and treat people with risk of fractures before they happen.
An international, multidisciplinary team of clinicians, data scientists and computer scientists will work together over 2 years, running clinical trials, implementing the solution in both NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and Assuta Medical Centers. The project is co-funded in part by the UK and Israel under the EUREKA framework to foster industrial research collaboration between the UK and Israel.
Paul McGinness, Director at Storm ID said: “We’re aiming to combine the powerful data exchange capabilities of our own Lenus Health Platform with the machine learning models developed by Zebra Medical Vision to transform osteoporosis screening. By predicting ahead of time the potential risk of bone fracture , we can intervene earlier to treat and manage the risk, which is better for the patient and for the health system.”
Ohad Arazi, CEO at Zebra Medical Vision said: “We’re honored to enhance our collaboration with the NHS and Assuta Medical hospital through this incredible initiative, allowing Zebra Med’s solutions to even more widely spread in the UK and Israeli healthcare facilities to bring earlier identification and treatment of patients at risk of a break, which in turn will help healthcare payers and providers.”
David Lowe, Emergency Consultant, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and Clinical Lead, West of Scotland Innovation Hub, said: “We are pleased to partner on the development of this innovative new solution for osteoporosis patients through the expertise of the West of Scotland Innovation Hub. This is another example of a successful collaboration between industry and the NHS to move forward innovative healthcare. Our clinical teams at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde will support the aim of this project to ultimately identify and treat patients with increased risk of bone breakage before it happens.”
Dr. Michal Guindy, Head of Imaging and Innovation at Assuta said: "Being able to re-analyze information from patient records and imaging is an important advantage of modern artificial intelligence. As a center of excellence, performing over 200,000 CTs annually, Assuta is excited to play a significant role in early detection of osteoporosis. By analyzing studies that were done for other clinical indications, we can leverage pre-existing data to help prevent fractures and contribute to solving a public health challenge of growing concern."
Read more on Zebra Medical Vision’s blog.
About Storm ID and Lenus Health
Storm ID is a digital transformation delivery partner for the healthcare sector.
It developed the Lenus Health Platform to support delivery of new digital health solutions that are continuous, preventative and participatory, and which help transform care pathways.
Lenus enables patient generated health data from digital technologies and consumer health tech such as apps, sensors and wearables to be shared with healthcare professionals and machine learning models to provide decision support, enabling targeted interventions to happen in the community. It supports solutions that reduce unnecessary and expensive hospital admissions including face-to-face appointments, improve patient engagement with their own health and wellbeing and reduce duplication and unnecessary processes through user managed access to patient data.
About Zebra Medical Vision
Zebra Medical Vision provides radiologists with the tools needed to make the next leap in patient care. The demand for medical imaging solutions is continuously increasing, outpacing the supply of qualified radiologists and stretching them to produce more output, without compromising patient care. Only by adopting new technology that significantly enhances the capabilities of radiologists, can this crisis be mitigated. Zebra-Med is empowering radiologists with its revolutionary AI1™ offering which helps health providers manage the ever increasing workload without compromising quality.
About NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is one of 14 regional NHS Boards in Scotland, serving a population of 1.14 million and employing around 39,000 staff. It is the largest NHS organisation in Scotland and one of the largest in the UK.
About Assuta Medical Centers
Assuta Medical Centers is Israel’s largest and leading private medical solution network comprising seven hospitals and clinics across Israel and providing innovative surgeries and diagnostic procedures in all fields of medicine. Assuta’s Imaging Institute is the most advanced of its type in Israel and has a team of leading radiologists and nuclear medicine specialists. The Institute offers patients the latest innovations in imaging technology, including advanced CT and PET-CT, MRI, PET-MR, and two-head nuclear imaging camera test results are integrated with other clinical data to enhance the accuracy of the findings. The Institute treats more than 600,000 patients annually.
About EUREKA
EUREKA is an intergovernmental network launched in 1985. Its aim is to support market-oriented R&D and innovation projects by industry, research centres and universities across all technological sectors. EUREKA has 41 full members, including the European Union (represented by the European Commission), 1 partner country (South Korea) and 4 associated members (Argentina, Canada, Chile, South Africa). All 27 EU Member States are also members of EUREKA.
The UK-Israel call for proposals was a joint initiative of Innovate UK and the Israel Innovation Authority based upon the 2017 memorandum of understanding on industrial collaboration between the 2 countries.
