The Society of Skeletal Radiology (SSR), together with the International Skeletal Society (ISS), hosted a webinar on “AI Applications in MSK Imaging” on Wednesday July 21, 2021. This webinar aimed to show MSK radiologists worldwide, and specifically in the US, which AI-based MSK (musculoskeletal orthopedics) solutions are already certified and thus available for clinical use today, and which are still in development.
Eight of the most important manufacturers of AI-based MSK solutions were invited for this webinar and asked to present their solution in a short presentation followed by a Q&A session. Balzano Informatik, representing ScanDiags Inc through product manager Stefan Voser at Balzano, was also among the vendors.
Currently, the biggest competitor for ScanDiags among the vendors is CoLumbo, which presented its MSK MRI lumbar solution. Despite overlap of some pathologies such as disc hernia and spinal stenosis, the lumbar module offered by ScanDiags sets it apart, along with other pathologies such as modic changes, vertebral fractures and neuroforaminal stenosis. In addition, the evaluation by ScanDiags is fully automated, i.e., without user interaction, whereas CoLumbo requires a user interface to provide the comparable information content, resulting in a lower degree of integration into the radiologists’ workflow. Aiming to be the one-stop solution for MSK MRI exams , ScanDiags additionally has a knee module in development and two more modules planned for the shoulder and hip areas..
GE and Siemens Healthineers have also unveiled AI solutions that overlap slightly with the ScanDiags solution in the knee area, specifically knee cartilage segmentation and examination for cartilage defects. ScanDiags also covers this functionality, but also offers additional evaluations of the most relevant pathologies in the knee (meniscus tear, cruciate ligament tear, collateral ligament tear, bone marrow edema, etc.).
The offerings of the other vendors do not currently overlap with ScanDiags, as they focus on other modalities such as computed tomography (Aidoc, Zebra) or X-ray (ImageBiopsyLab) or a platform solution for training machine learning models (Flywheel).
The team at ScanDiags is grateful to the organizers for coordinating this important and successful event, in which we were able to connect with the participants in a meaningful way.
