Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche is teaming up with artificial intelligence vendor Ibex Medical Analytics and Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud hosting arm of Amazon, to bring AI-driven diagnostic support tools to pathology laboratories. Roche, Ibex and AWS have collaborated to enable access to Ibex's AI-powered decision support tools through Roche's Navify digital pathology platform.
Digital pathology technology is designed to streamline workflows and enhance laboratory diagnostic efficiency. Combined with AI, it has the potential to boost productivity and reduce turnaround times in those labs. To this end, Ibex’s AI tools will be integrated into the Navify digital pathology platform and used to aid clinicians in diagnosing breast and prostate cancer, according to a press release from the companies.
This partnership will support biopsy diagnosis, cancer grading, subtype identification, and the recognition of noncancerous features. Additionally, it supports the review and analysis of slide images.
"Our collaboration with Roche is driving new AI-powered workflows that help pathologists and laboratories realize the full potential of going digital," Joseph Mossel, CEO and co-founder of Ibex Medical Analytics, said in a statement. "The next phase in the evolution of digital pathology is open platforms that enable technology providers to join forces and offer integrated software solutions that improve lab efficiency, biopsy review and ultimately the quality of patient care."
Both the Navify platform and Ibex's algorithms will be hosted on the AWS cloud to enable scalability and expedite the adoption of digital pathology, according to the statement from the companies.
Last month, Ibex secured $55 million in series C financing to advance the development of its AI-powered diagnostic solutions, bringing its total seed funding to over $100 million since 2016.
It's worth noting that Ibex's AI algorithms are CE-marked for in vitro diagnostics for breast and prostate cancer detection in Europe, but are labeled as “research use only” in the United States, and cannot currently be used in diagnostic procedures until that changes.
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