Healthcare AI firm annalise.ai has partnered with Fujifilm Australia for the distribution of its decision support solutions for portable and stationary chest x-ray machines.

Annalise CXR Edge is a software as a medical device that assists clinicians and radiologists in interpreting chest x-rays. According to the company, its AI algorithm identifies and notifies suspected findings in under 10 seconds.

Two variants of the Annalise CXR Edge will be offered to healthcare providers in Australia: one is the Annalise CXR Edge Comprehensive, which can detect 95 clinical findings and is suited for inpatient, outpatient and emergency settings, and the other is the Annalise CXR Edge Critical Care, which detects 35 findings relevant in trauma, emergency, and intensive care settings.

Annalise CXR Edge will be available in selected Fujifilm equipment models globally, subject to regulatory approvals. It has been registered for clinical use in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and India, and approved for use as a medical device in the European Union.

WHY IT MATTERS

Surein Fernando, ANZ Medical Division manager of Fujifilm Australia, noted the increasing uptake of portable devices for chest imaging. Such devices, he claimed, now have a "more important role to play within radiology imaging departments and wards".

"With increased patient volumes, clinicians are under pressure to make quicker decisions and we believe this ideal partnership will provide an advance[d] toolset, including decision support, that is needed," he emphasised.

With the ability to detect up to 95 findings, Annalise CXR Edge can also assist with the early identification of significant findings that may be easily missed. According to annalise.ai, about nine in 10 cases of missed lung cancer diagnoses were due to faulty chest x-ray interpretations.

Meanwhile, Fujifilm Australia said it will dispatch two of its mobile x-ray machines equipped with Annalise CXR Edge to Tonga and Palau for its COVID-19 response assistance.

THE LARGER TREND

Last year in February, annalise.ai introduced the Annalise Enterprise which offers healthcare providers a comprehensive set of AI modules, including its chest x-ray solution that can detect 124 findings. Its latest CXR Edge uses an AI model developed from the Enterprise CXR's model, which was trained using more than 800,000 images. 

Among early adopters, Australian diagnostic imaging provider Sonic Imaging started deploying the Annalise Enterprise CXR across its 100 radiology clinics in September last year.