The ChestLink solution is designed to facilitate the work of radiologists in primary care centres. In clinics where various preventive tests and examinations are carried out or where patients come for minor medical conditions, more than 50% of chest radiographs show no abnormalities. Nevertheless, doctors still have to review and describe these images. To save doctors’ time, the ChestLink AI system can do this job for them.
“There is a worldwide shortage of radiologists. Patients have to wait for weeks to get an X-ray description. The shortage of doctors has a direct impact on the quality of patient treatment. ChestLink is able to automate up to 40% of the workload of a primary care centre's radiology department, allowing doctors to focus on pathologies where abnormalities are detected,” said Gediminas Pekšys, CEO of Oxipit.
The ChestLink solution has been positively evaluated and successfully used by medical institutions in Lithuania and other European countries.
The AI solution developed by Oxipit is based on high-performance data science models which can identify that a patient is healthy with 99.8% accuracy. The EU investment has covered much of the technical work for this product, such as data labelling and model development.
After developing the technical components of the product, Oxipit took care of the certification and market introduction of the product. In April 2022, ChestLink was awarded CE certification, allowing the solution to be used in healthcare facilities in 32 European countries.
Two projects – Two Successes
Implementation of ChestLink is linked to the EU’s investment call Eksperimentas, which has helped companies develop innovations that bring real benefits to society. The final phase of the project required an investment of almost €600,000. Of them, €400,000 were allocated from EU funds, while the remaining costs were covered by the company's own resources.
“Medical innovations often take decades to develop. Scientists have long proclaimed that in the future, AI in radiology will be able to diagnose patients autonomously – but no one expected it to happen as early as 2022. The incentive from EU funds was significant to develop this solution sooner,” said Mr Pekšys.
The whole process of developing ChestLink took about four years. The present AI product was developed as a follow-up to the previous EU investment call Intelektas. This included the development of models for the detection of lung cancer, tuberculosis and other pathologies.
“To be able to recognise that a patient is healthy, the AI must first be able to recognise even the smallest lung pathologies,” noted Mr Pekšys.
Models for identifying cancerous lesions in the lungs are also used in another Oxipit product, Oxipit Quality. This product acts as a virtual assistant to the doctor, reviewing each X-ray image and the doctor's existing description of it in real time. If the AI solution detects abnormalities in the radiograph which have been overlooked by the doctor, a message is sent to the radiologist to review the test again.
“Focal cancerous lesions are extremely small and difficult to see with the naked eye. They account for over 80% of all undetected pathologies. The earlier the lesion is detected, the more successful the subsequent cancer treatment and the better the patient’s prognosis. According to a study carried out at Kaunas City Outpatient Clinic and Šeškinė Outpatient Clinic, Oxipit Quality is able to detect 20% more focal lesions and to start the treatment of patients earlier,’ said Mr Pekšys.
Consistent Investment in Innovation
Over €310 million have already been invested in business research and experimental development in the 2014-2020 funding period, with 251 projects completed and 236 ongoing.
The programme will result in a total of 864 innovative product prototypes. Some companies develop several prototypes in a single project. The calls were distributed consistently throughout the period to ensure that research and experimental development (R&D) activities in the companies could continue uninterrupted, as was the case for Oxipit.
“To further stimulate the supply of innovation, we plan to launch the InoStartas call later this year. Its main activities will enable researchers to participate in R&D projects in companies, pilot production and market readiness of newly developed products. We are also planning to launch two more calls early next year: InoPažanga and InoBranda for the deployment of R&D innovations,” said Agnė Vaitkūnienė, Director of the Investment Management Department of the Innovation Agency.
InoStartas, InoPažanga and InoBranda are part of the 2022-2030 Economic Transformation and Competitiveness Development Programme managed by the Ministry of the Economy and Innovation of the Republic of Lithuania. The project activities are financed by the EU investment funds.
All calls are published on the website of Innovation Agency's funding instruments.
