Siemens Healthineers Debuts AI-Rad Companion Chest CT

AI-based software assistant enables automated enhanced visualization of CT images of the lungs, heart and aorta

Siemens Healthineers presented its first intelligent software assistant for radiology, the AI-Rad Companion Chest CT, at the 2018 Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting, Nov. 25-30 in Chicago. The software brings artificial intelligence (AI) to computed tomography (CT). Using CT images of the chest, it can differentiate between various structures in that region of the body, highlighting them individually, and mark and measure potential abnormalities in the lungs, heart, aorta and coronary arteries. AI-Rad Companion Chest CT automatically translates its findings into structured reports.

Featuring underlying algorithms trained by Siemens Healthineers scientists on extensive clinical datasets, AI-Rad Companion Chest CT is designed to help radiologists interpret images via automation for potentially reduced time spent on results documentation. Siemens Healthineers plans additional intelligent assistants for the AI-Rad Companion platform.

The company said the goal of the intelligent software assistants is to help healthcare providers overcome the challenge of rising patient numbers coupled with shortfalls in staff.

While chest images display a wide variety of information, radiologists mainly assess these images with regard to the primary indication. The algorithms in AI-Rad Companion Chest CT are able to provide segmentation, measurement, and highlighting to support quantitative and qualitative analysis. The intelligent assistant generates standardized, reproducible and quantitative reports based on the AI-supported analysis.

AI-Rad Companion Chest CT supports a variety of tasks. Those tasks include automated identification, localization, labeling and measurement of lung lesions, as well as automated quantification of the total calcium volume in the coronary arteries.

A cloud-based solution, the software uses certified, secure teamplay infrastructure. It integrates seamlessly into existing clinical workflows and conforms to Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) standards. The images and supporting information can be made available automatically in the picture archiving and communication system (PACS).

AI-Rad Companion Chest CT can analyze image data from all CT manufacturers. The software is pending 510(k) clearance with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is not for sale in the U.S.