Imaging industry giant RadNet is partnering with a Silicon Valley artificial intelligence firm in a bid to boost breast cancer care across the U.S.
The investor-owned, Los Angeles-based provider announced Thursday, Nov. 7, that it’s teaming with Whiterabbit.ai to further spread AI tools across its 340 outpatient centers. The two have already been working together on a pilot program involving 12 sites in Delaware and three in Florida, using AI software to identify and communicate with women who were noncompliant with their mammograms.
That partnership has shown promise already since starting in July, “substantially” increasing compliance and screening volumes, officials said. Now, RadNet and Whiterabbit.ai will look to spread it to other states in the first half of 2020. The imaging chain said it is also investing in the startup to develop further AI solutions.
“The partnership arrangement with, and investment in, Whiterabbit.ai reiterates our commitment to position RadNet with cutting-edge technology solutions that we believe will transform our industry in the coming years,” Chairman and CEO Howard Berger, MD, said in a statement. “We expect that machine learning, big data applications and automation algorithms will help us to deliver our services more cost effectively, efficiently and accurately, while enhancing the patient experience.”
Without getting into specifics, the companies said future AI solutions could include smartphone apps and artificial intelligence algorithms to automate interpretation of mammography images. Solutions would be geared toward customer-focused medicine and improving the patient experience, added Whiterabbit.ai CEO and founder Rakesh Mathur.
RadNet Inc. is the largest national provider of freestanding, fixed-site diagnostic imaging services in the country, employing more than 500 radiologists and earning $1.1 billion in annual revenue. The company also launched an AI division in August, and is the first to use Whiterabbit.ai’s radiology suite, according to the announcement.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.