Industry Insight

Artificial Intelligence Can Predict Survival of Ovarian Cancer Patients

Artificial intelligence software created by researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Melbourne has been able to predict the prognosis of patients with ovarian cancer more accurately than current methods. It can also predict what treatment would be most effective for patients following diagnosis.

The trial, published in Nature Communications, took place at Hammersmith Hospital, part of Imperial College Healthcare National Health Service Trust.

Researchers say that this new technology could help clinicians administer the best treatments to patients more quickly and paves the way for more personalized medicine. They hope that the technology can be used to stratify ovarian cancer patients into groups based on the subtle differences in the texture of their cancer on CT scans rather than classification based on what type of cancer they have or how advanced it is.

Eric Aboagye, PhD, lead author and a professor of cancer pharmacology and molecular imaging at Imperial College London, says, “The long-term survival rates for patients with advanced ovarian cancer are poor despite the advancements made in cancer treatments. There is an urgent need to find new ways to treat the disease. Our technology is able to give clinicians more detailed and accurate information on the how patients are likely to respond to different treatments, which could enable them to make better and more targeted treatment decisions.”

Professor Andrea Rockall, PhD, coauthor and honorary consultant radiologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, adds, “Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform the way health care is delivered and improve patient outcomes. Our software is an example of this and we hope that it can be used as a tool to help clinicians with how to best manage and treat patients with ovarian cancer.”

Ovarian cancer is the sixth most common cancer in women and usually affects postmenopausal women or those with a family history of the disease. There are 6,000 new cases of ovarian cancer per year in the United Kingdom, but the long-term survival rate is just 35% to 40%, as the disease is often diagnosed at a much later stage once symptoms such as bloating are noticeable. Early detection of the disease could improve survival rates.

Doctors diagnose ovarian cancer in a number of ways including a blood test to look for a substance called CA125—an indication of cancer—followed by a CT scan that uses X-rays and a computer to create detailed pictures of the ovarian tumor. This helps clinicians know how far the disease has spread and determines the type of treatment patients receive, such as surgery and chemotherapy.

However, the scans can’t give clinicians detailed insight into patients’ likely overall outcomes or on the likely effect of a therapeutic intervention.

Researchers used a mathematical software tool called TEXLab to identify the aggressiveness of tumors in CT scans and tissue samples from 364 women with ovarian cancer between 2004–2015.

The software examined four biological characteristics of the tumors—structure, shape, size, and genetic makeup—that significantly influence overall survival to assess the patients’ prognosis. The patients were then given a Radiomic Prognostic Vector (RPV) score, ranging from mild to severe, to assess the disease.

The researchers compared the results with blood tests and current prognostic scores used by doctors to estimate survival. They found that the software was up to four times more accurate than standard methods for predicting deaths from ovarian cancer.

The team also found that 5% of patients with high RPV scores had a survival rate of less than two years. High RPV was also associated with chemotherapy resistance and poor surgical outcomes, suggesting that RPV can be used as a potential biomarker to predict how patients would respond to treatments.

Aboagye suggests that this technology can be used to identify patients who are unlikely to respond to standard treatments and offer them alternative treatments.

The researchers will carry out a larger study to see how accurately the software can predict the outcomes of surgery and/or drug therapies for individual patients.

— Source: Imperial College London

Health Records on iPhone Now Available to Christiana Care Health System Patients

Christiana Care Health System now supports Health Records on iPhone, which brings together hospitals, clinics, and the existing Apple Health app to make it easy for patients to see their available medical records from multiple providers whenever they choose.

“In our digital world, we are meeting our patients’ expectations that their health records should be available to them as readily as their newsfeeds, videos, and social media,” says Randy Gaboriault, CIO and senior vice president for innovation and strategic development at Christiana Care. “Health Records on iPhone puts the ownership of health records where it belongs—with the patient.”

Previously, patients’ medical records were held in multiple locations, requiring patients to log into each care provider’s website and piece together the information manually. Apple worked with the health care community to take a consumer-friendly approach and created Health Records based on Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, a standard for transferring EHRs.

Now, using Health Records on iPhone, patients can have medical information from participating institutions organized into one view, covering allergies, conditions, immunizations, lab results, medications, procedures, and vitals, and will receive notifications when their data are updated. Health Records data are encrypted and protected with the user’s iPhone passcode, Touch ID, or Face ID.

“Health Records on iPhone is a powerful tool to support patients in their care,” says Edmondo J. Robinson, MD, FACP, chief transformation officer and senior vice president for consumerism at Christiana Care. “This is a catalyst for important conversations between patients and health care providers. With their health information literally in their pockets, patients are empowered for more well-informed conversations and clinicians have the benefit of instant information from a validated data source.”

Christiana Care is a leader in making EHRs accessible, secure, and transparent for patients. For example, in another initiative Christiana Care ascribes to open notes, which means patients can read physician notes from their visits as part of their EHRs. Including open notes in the EHR is still a rarity across the nation, Robinson says.

— Source: Christiana Care Health System

Medsphere Acquires Wellsoft

Medsphere Systems Corporation, a provider of affordable and interoperable HIT solutions and services, announces the acquisition of Wellsoft Corporation, a provider of award-winning Emergency Department Information Systems (EDIS). Based in Somerset, New Jersey, Wellsoft has more than 30 years of experience creating applications that enable providers to improve patient care in the most intense and demanding clinical environment.

Wellsoft’s core product includes an EDIS tailored for the unique workflow and environments of emergency departments and urgent care centers. The Wellsoft solution is implemented at facilities in the United States, Canada, and further abroad. Wellsoft has been ranked Number One by KLAS Research 14 times since 2002 in the Software and Services—Emergency Department Market Segment category, most recently in 2019.

Moving forward, Medsphere will introduce a comprehensive solution for urgent care centers that capitalizes on the technology from Wellsoft, combined with Medsphere’s RCM Cloud revenue cycle suite.

“You only have to look at the awards and recognition Wellsoft has received to recognize what a significant addition to the CareVue EHR platform this is,” says Medsphere President and CEO Irv Lichtenwald. “We’re very excited about the tremendous clinical value of Wellsoft and CareVue together and we look forward to working with Dr. John Santmann and his team on our shared ethic of making affordable, comprehensive health care IT available to all providers.”

The complete Wellsoft solution includes functionality focused on patient tracking, clinical documentation, orders and results, reimbursement, clinical decision support, discharge planning, and data management. Wellsoft also includes touch technology and is configurable for specific workflows.

“This is a very positive and exciting time for Wellsoft,” says Founder and CEO John Santmann, MD. “With this merger, we have the opportunity to expand as an integral component of a larger, integrated enterprise solution for health care providers. In our early conversations with Medsphere, we also recognized shared goals and values—specifically, a commitment to empowering health care organizations without asking them to sacrifice other clinical initiatives by overpaying for health care IT. We’re truly excited to join Medsphere.”

As part of the merger, Santmann will step into the chief medical information officer role at Medsphere.

— Source: Medsphere Systems Corporation