Ibex Medical Analytics Wins UK Award to Accelerate Adoption of AI-Powered Cancer Detection in the NHS

Ibex Was Selected Among the First Ever Winners of the AI in Health and Care Award, Sharing £50 Million to Enable a Study of Ibex’s AI Technology Across Multiple NHS Trusts

Ibex Medical Analytics, the pioneer in artificial intelligence (AI)-based cancer diagnostics, has won a share of a £50 million fund as part of the UK’s AI in Health and Care Award for accelerating the rollout of healthcare projects with promising AI technologies across the NHS. The award is run by the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) in partnership with NHSx and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

In the UK, nearly 100,000 men undergo prostate biopsies every year, a number expected to double in the next 10 years. These procedures produce millions of tissue cores, each requiring meticulous review by a pathologist, most often performed using a microscope, in order to diagnose whether the patient has cancer. Coupled with a global shortage of pathologists, the increasing workloads lead to delayed diagnosis and treatment for cancer as well as concerns over misdiagnoses.

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As part of the award program, Ibex’s Galen™ Prostate solution will be used in six NHS hospitals in the largest ever government funded multi-site deployment in the UK. During the study, leading researchers from Imperial College London, University College London, University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire, Oxford University Hospitals and other institutes will provide evidence on the AI solution’s performance in detecting and grading cancer and in identifying other clinically significant features in prostate biopsies taken from 600 men and comparing it to assessment from pathologists.

Ibex’s Galen Prostate and Galen Breast solutions are already deployed in pathology labs worldwide and used in routine clinical practice, with demonstrated success in detecting missed cancer cases. In a recent publication, The Lancet Digital Health reported results from a study on Galen Prostate conducted at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), including the highest performance levels ever reported in the field of AI in pathology.

“Pathology is in crisis and the UK is no exception, but we believe that AI has the potential to change that by enhancing quality and efficiency, which is of paramount importance to ensure we put every patient on the path to recovery,” said Dr. Hashim Ahmed, Chair of Urology at Imperial College London, and the study’s principal investigator. “We want every NHS patient to receive the best possible care. Ibex’s technology has demonstrated its robustness on several studies abroad, and we look forward to seeing its performance and utility firsthand in the NHS.”

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“We are excited to participate in this important validation of Ibex’s platform,” said Dr. David Snead, pathologist at University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire and director of PathLAKE, an Innovate UK funded center of excellence for AI in digital pathology and radiology. “I believe that AI will forever change the pathology practice. Pathologists will adapt and learn to utilize such tools in ways that provide better care to our patients. With initiatives such as the AI in Health and Care Award and PathLAKE, the UK is well positioned to lead this transformation.”

“We are honored to receive this award from the NIHR and NHSx,” said Daphna Laifenfeld, PhD, Ibex Chief Scientific Officer. “It acknowledges the potential of AI in pathology practice and the scientific evidence and clinical utility we have demonstrated to date. The UK is clearly on track to become a world leader in implementing AI technologies in healthcare and we look forward to cooperating with our NHS partners and introducing our AI solution into multiple pathology labs in the UK.”

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