COMPUTER AIDED LUMBAR SPINE
MRI READING AND REPORTING
CoLumbo reads, segments, measures and classifies MRI images to provide pathology description, findings and measurements with pre-populated structured or free text report. The project has the European Commission Seal of Excellence and there is USPTO Patent Pending US 63/239,985.
CoLumbo has CE mark.
MAIN FEATURES
• Automatically segments MRI images
• Detects and measures discs, herniation, vertebral bodies, stenosis, angles, etc.
• Provides graded and measured radiology findings
• Provides pathology description level by level with an editable draft report
• Saves 25% of the time needed for reading and reporting
• Errors are reduced by up to 15% compared to a radiologist not using CoLumbo
CoLumbo is software for the analysis of Lumbar spine images obtained with MRI.
CoLumbo is software for the analysis of lumbar spine images obtained with MRI. The purpose of CoLumbo is to assist with reading MRI images on the lumbar spine, provide information on detected pathologies and abnormalities, and reduce the time to record the readings.
According to the Spine Reporting Survey we conducted, the radiologists think that on average about 17.2 minutes are needed for thorough L-Spine MRI diagnostics in cases with no complications and about 30 minutes for more complex cases. Still, they have only 13.6 minutes on average for MRI reading in a real clinical situation at the cost of up to 30% errors and omissions.
The key novelty of CoLumbo lies in the unique machine learning algorithm, based on fully convolutional neural networks combined with medical domain knowledge, dropout regularization, and packet normalization which are capable of reading MRI images, to provide a complete diagnosis. U-Net-like architecture is used to improve the resolution.
The first step is the segmentation of specific structures which is made on a pixel level and the use of fully convolutional neural networks allows quick segmentation maps to be generated for images of any size. The second is the identification of key points in the MRI images. After this distances, areas and angles are measured. Finally, the combination of segmentation, measurements, and specially applied algorithms provides the diagnosis according to the parameters described in the scientific medical literature.
The main benefits of CoLumbo are lower cost, ease of use and optimal cost-result ratio. CoLumbo holds the potential to alleviate the economic burden imposed on the business as the low cost of the service will render it available to a bigger part of the population, thus helping with implementing preventative measures which will lower the number of chronically disabled employees.
CoLumbo is software for analysis and diagnosis of lumbar spine images obtained with MRI. The purpose of CoLumbo is to assist with the reading of MRI images on the lumbar spine and to provide information on detected pathologies and abnormalities, and reduce the time to record the readings.
According to the Spine Reporting Survey we conducted, the radiologists think that on average about 17.2 minutes are needed for thorough L-Spine MRI diagnostics in cases without any complications and about 30 minutes for more complex cases, but they have only 13.6 minutes on average for MRI reading in a real clinical situation at the cost of up to 30% errors and omissions.
The key novelty of CoLumbo lies in the unique machine learning algorithm, based on fully convolutional neural networks combined with medical domain knowledge, dropout regularization, and packet normalization which are capable of reading MRI images, to provide a complete diagnosis. U-Net-like architecture is used to improve the resolution.
The first step is the Segmentation of specific structures which is made on a pixel level and the use of fully convolutional neural networks allows quick segmentation maps to be generated for images of any size. The second is the identification of key points in the MRI images. After this is the measurement of distances, areas and angles. Finally, the combination of segmentation, measurements, and specially applied algorithms provides the diagnosis according to the parameters described in the scientific medical literature.
The main benefits of CoLumbo are lower cost, ease of use and optimal cost-result ratio. CoLumbo holds the potential to alleviate the economic burden imposed on the business as the low cost of the service will render it available to a bigger part of the population, thus helping with the implementation of preventative measures which will lower the number of chronically disabled employees.
Social Impact
About 80 percent of adults experience back pain at some point in their lifetimes.
It is the most common cause of job-related disability and a leading contributor to missed workdays. The magnitude of the burden from low back pain has worsened in recent years.
In 1990, a study ranking the most burdensome conditions in the US in terms of mortality or poor health as a result of disease put low back pain in sixth place; in 2010, low back pain jumped to third place, with only ischemic heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ranking higher. Back pain has a significant economic impact on individuals and society. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the direct health care costs and those resulting from sick leave and early retirement due to back pain are annually over three times higher than the costs for all cancers.
Social Impact
About 80 percent of adults experience back pain at some point in their lifetimes.
It is the most common cause of job-related disability and a leading contributor to missed workdays. The magnitude of the burden from low back pain has grown worse in recent years.
In 1990, a study ranking the most burdensome conditions in the U.S. in terms of mortality or poor health as a result of disease put low back pain in sixth place; in 2010, low back pain jumped to third place, with only ischemic heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ranking higher. Back pain has a significant economic impact on individuals and society. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the direct health care costs and those resulting from sick leave and early retirement due to back pain are annually over three times higher than the costs for all cancers.
Economic Impact
Low Back Pain has a major economic impact with total costs related to this condition exceeding 100 Billion USD per year in the United States alone. Herniated discs, stenosis and spondylolisthesis are major causes of lower back pain and disability and the latter being a significant global socio-economic problem. Annually, there are 10 million MRI spine exams in the US alone, with radiologist wages of USD 140 per hour and a second opinion price of USD 50 per exam.
Trends
Population in developed countries is aging, and an enormous demand for healthcare specialists leads to the demand for healthcare products to facilitate the work of physicians. Trends indicate that in five years up to half of them will be medical and 50% to 80% will be analyzed by artificial intelligence or deep learning software.
The Solution
There are situations when patients may need to wait a long time for diagnosis and pay a very high price. CoLumbo aims to offer a reliable and accurate diagnoses of back pain problems for a fraction of the current costs. Furthermore, the platform provides a completely unbiased diagnosis with no ulterior motives. A blind study indicates up to 30% disagreement between radiologists. With CoLumbo errors will be reduced by up to 15% and time savings of at least 25% will occur.