Annalise.ai is a leading health tech company that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize medical imaging. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Annalise.ai’s chief medical officer, Dr. Rick Abramson, to learn more about the company.
Rick Abramson’s Background
Dr. Abramson is a Harvard-trained physician-executive with over 25 years of experience across both the clinical and nonclinical sides of healthcare. And Dr. Abramson said:
“I have had roles in clinical practice, academic research, policy development, and management. I’ve worked in some pretty diverse settings, including McKinsey & Co., the White House Budget Office, and HCA Healthcare, where I served as Vice President and corporate lead for radiology across HCA’s 185 hospitals. A central theme of my career has been leveraging multidisciplinary perspectives to address complex healthcare problems. I have served in the role of global Chief Medical Officer for Annalise.ai for close to 2 years now.”
Core Products
What are Annalise.ai’s core products and features? Dr. Abramson explained:
“Annalise.ai, based in Sydney, Australia, is a leading developer of advanced artificial intelligence solutions for medical imaging. We emerged onto the global market only three years ago, and our technology is already deployed at over 400 sites in Australia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Continental Europe, and the United Kingdom. We have officially launched in the United States after having obtained numerous FDA 510(k) clearances over the past 18 months.”
“While some other technology companies are addressing the noninterpretive side of medical imaging (scheduling, billing, etc.), Annalise.ai is positioned to enhance diagnostic interpretation and is the central professional activity within the radiology value chain. The Annalise Enterprise products leverage a powerful AI architecture trained on some of the world’s largest and most robust datasets to identify and localize pathology on medical images. This technology is combined with a state-of-the-art user interface to deliver workflow orchestration and diagnostic support for interpreting providers, whether they be radiologists or other physicians.”
“The end result is products that augment both efficiency and quality.
“Physicians using the Annalise software can work more quickly and confidently, knowing that Annalise is acting as a second pair of eyes to help reduce diagnostic errors and misses. This technology couldn’t come at a better time: a rapid increase in imaging produce volumes combined with a global shortage of radiologists means that solutions are desperately needed to enhance physician capacity and address physician burnout while preserving and enhancing quality of care.”
“Annalise.ai currently offers commercial solutions for chest X-rays (CXR) and CT brain (CTB). Our R&D pipeline includes additional functionality for these imaging modalities as well as new diagnostic support modules for other modalities. We are planning to launch pre-populated radiology reports that radiologists can review and edit, thus cementing our position as the de facto leader in product innovation for medical imaging AI.”
“That’s all for the rest of the world. Now, coming to the U.S., we have seen historically that up to 50% of medical examinations are labeled as STAT, with 90% of these originating from the emergency department (ED). 75% of ED visits in 2019 required at least one diagnostic or screening test, 51% of which involved medical imaging. Understanding the needs of the region, we have officially just launched the Annalise Triage product for the United States.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Dr. Abramson cited:
“The company has been on a steep growth trajectory ever since its inception, not just in terms of site deployments and revenue, but also in terms of regulatory clearances and evidence generation. I mentioned that we are already deployed at over 400 sites, which is no small feat for a company that launched in 2019!”
“Annalise’s Enterprise solutions are CE-marked and are available for clinical use in over 40 countries. In the U.S., we now have 12 FDA 510(k)-cleared findings with additional 510(k) submissions planned. One of our algorithms was recently designated by the FDA as a Breakthrough Device, a rare and significant designation highlighting the novelty and clinical importance of our technology. We have won several global awards, including Best New Radiology Vendor from Aunt Minnie, Best New Radiology Solution from the MedTech Breakthrough Awards, and Best in Class and Gold Winner from the prestigious Good Design Australia Award.”
“We hold ourselves to a high level of scientific rigor, and we are proud of our track record in producing high-quality clinical evidence. Our products have recently been highlighted in the high-impact journals European Radiology and Radiology, and we just presented some groundbreaking results at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting.”
Customer Success Stories
After asking Dr. Abramson about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“In the US we are working with various leading healthcare solution providers from Mass General Brigham to Raleigh Radiology.
In Australia, our market penetration is so deep that Annalise solutions are now available to 1 in every 3 Australian radiologists. It has been gratifying for me to see example after example of real-world imaging cases where significant pathology – intracranial hemorrhage, early ischemic stroke, pneumothorax, lung nodules – would have been missed if not for the presence of Annalise.ai software.”
“This success is evident not only in the anecdotal examples but also in the systematic research. In one of our clinical trials, radiologists aided by Annalise software logged a 45% improvement in accuracy and a 12% increase in reporting efficiency. In another study, 9 out of 10 radiologists in a real-world clinical deployment reported that the Annalise AI tool enhanced their reporting accuracy.”
“In the UK, our technology has been used to support radiologist interpretations against a background of severe budgetary constraints and a growing backlog of imaging studies within the NHS. Annalise tools have demonstrated particular usefulness when deployed within workflows designed to facilitate early lung cancer detection.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Dr. Abramson concluded:
“Our most important market differentiator is the breadth of our software. Our Enterprise solutions detect many more abnormalities than most other medical imaging solutions – and that means more support for the interpreting physician and more clinical value delivery to the patient. The Annalise Enterprise CXR solution detects up to 124 distinct imaging findings, and our Enterprise CTB tool detects up to 130 findings. When you compare this kind of coverage to other AI solutions that only detect one or two imaging abnormalities, it’s really almost a different product category altogether. We have also introduced the Annalise Reporting feature. It creates comprehensive, pre-filled, editable, draft reports ready for radiologists to review and sign off. Radiology report writing is a time-consuming task that also requires experience from the radiologists involved. Annalise Reporting aims to alleviate this challenge, and make reporting faster, thereby scaling radiologists’ capacity.”
“Other important differentiators for Annalise.ai include our commitment to user-focused design, our involvement of radiologists at every step of the product development process, our rigorous approach to labeling and modeling, the quality and diversity of our datasets, our emphasis on high standards of scientific evidence, and our proven success with technical implementation, change management, and customer service for large, multi-site healthcare providers. This is a company that really knows what it’s doing, and I look forward to our having an enormous impact on care delivery in the years to come.”
