Press Release

Boston, MA, US, May 30-June 3, 2009

EDDA Exhibits at American Transplant Congress 2009 to present IQQA®-Liver Advanced Toolset for Fast Volumetry and Pre-& Post-surgical Assessment from Liver MDCT.

Valencia, Spain, May 30-June 2, 2009

EDDA Exhibits at WCTI 2009 World Congress Thoracic Imaging and Diagnosis Chest Disease.

Three scientific publications were presented:

Goo, JM; Park, CM; Lee, HJ; Lee, IS; Kang, MJ; Jin, KN, “Computer-Aided Diagnosis System in the Detection of Malignant Lung Nodules on Chest Radiograph: Effect on Observers’ Performance”, 2nd World Congress of Thoracic Imaging and Diagnosis in Chest Disease, Valencia, Spain, June 2009.

De Boo, D.W.; Uffmann, M.; Bipat, S.; Scheerder, M.J.; Freling, N.J.M.; Schaefer-Prokop, C.M. “Detection of Small Solid Pulmonary Lesions on Digital Chest Radiographs: Could we Profit from Computer-Aided Detection?”, 2nd World Congress of Thoracic Imaging and Diagnosis in Chest Disease, Valencia, Spain, June 2009.

Cakirdas, M; Lhoste Agnes; Daffaud Pierre; Roche Antoine; Brehant Julien; Michel Magalie; Camara Pierre Yves; Michel Jean Luc ” Evaluation of a Computer Aided Detection Software for Pulmonary Nodules on Chest Radiograph”, 2nd World Congress of Thoracic Imaging and Diagnosis in Chest Disease, Valencia, Spain, June 2009.

Miami Beach, US, March 12-15, 2009

EDDA Exhibits at American Hepato Pancreato Billiary Association 2009 to present IQQA®-Liver Avanced Toolset for Fast Volumetry and Pre-& Post-surgical Assessment from Liver MDCT.

EDDA Technology, Inc.

Attend the 94th Scientific Assembly & Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

• MEETING DATES : Nov. 30 – Dec. 5, 2008
• BOOTH NUMBER : East Building – Hall D 203

For more information: http://rsna2008.rsna.org/exhibitor_list.cfm?GROUP=ALPHA

PRINCETON, NJ, July 24th, 2008

     

EDDA Technology today announced the launch of its new release of IQQA®-Liver V1.2, designed to assist physician’s fast assessment of volumetry from liver MDCT. This new release will be featured at the upcoming Annual Meeting of the Association for Medical Imaging Management (AHRA) in Denver, CO.

The rapid advances of MDCT technology fuel its abdominal imaging applications. MDCT is playing an increasingly important role not only in characterization of liver and liver lesions, but also in preoperative assessment for live resection and transplantation. To fully realize the value of MDCT scans, quantitative assessment of anatomic volume is mandatory. However, delineation and measurement of various volumes via manual tracing on image slices poses tremendous stress on workload, and suffers from significant inconsistency due to inter- and intra-observer variations.

The new release of IQQA®-Liver focuses on real-time assistive tools and automated workflow for physician’s fast assessment of volumetry of liver, liver lesions, vascular structures, liver segments and lobes from MDCT. Such automated workflow is based upon advanced image analysis algorithms and the real-time interactive design. The system performs automatic anatomic phase registration to allow simultaneous visualization and easy cross-referencing of lesion location and characteristics across the different phases.IQQA®-Liver further provides automated segmentation tools and additional multiple real-time tools for users to interactively separate and label specific liver segments and lobes in 3D.Quantitative measurements are extracted from segmented and labeled volumes instantly

“EDDA strives to provide a new generation of interactive decision/planning aid solutions to physicians for daily clinical practice”, says Dr. Jian-Zhong Qian, President and CEO of EDDA Technology. “Our innovation is for the confidence of both physicians and patients when it comes to accurate and fast information assessment from medical imaging.”

Liver disease is a common and serious problem in the US. There are 25 million Americans afflicted by liver diseases including cirrhosis, hepatitis and tumors.The liver is the second most commonly transplanted major organ after the kidney. In 2005, about 6,500 liver transplants were performed in the United States according to the American Liver Foundation.

IQQA®-Liver has been in clinical use in several luminary Chinese hospitals for liver cancer detection, diagnosis and preoperative evaluation purposes, including Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital in Shanghai, and Shanghai Ruijin Hospital.

IQQA®-Liver can be readily deployed onto existing hospital PACS workstations with EDDA’s proprietary IQQA® Enterprise Engine technologies.

EDDA Technology will be exhibiting the IQQA® Family of Products in Booth #737 at the AHRA Annual Meeting in Denver, CO, from July 27 to 30, 2008. Also featured is IQQA®-Chest Enterprise CAD designed to assist physician’s interpretation of digital chest X-Ray. One recent prospective study published in Academic Radiology(Vol. 15:5, pp. 571-575) demonstrated a sensitivity increase of physician’s nodule detection from 63.8% without IQQA®-Chest to 92.7% with IQQA®-Chest assistance at University of Iowa’s Carver College of Medicine.

Health Imaging & IT | July 1, 2008 | Special Section: CAD’s Impact on Radiology

By Jonathan Batchelor
Fueled by clinical studies, integration with IT and reimbursement

The integration of computer-aided detection (CAD) software into the day-to-day practice of radiology has witnessed the enthusiastic adoption of the applications for some clinical indications. Mammography CAD, which was first greeted with skepticism and suspicion by radiologists, has since enjoyed a groundswell of support. Lung CAD, thanks to diligent efforts by early adopters, is showing signs that it may be the next area of medicine to embrace widespread utilization of this technology.

According to the American Cancer Society, lung cancer is difficult to treat because it is rarely caught in its earliest stages—when treatment options are most effective. As such, only 16 percent of patients diagnosed with lung cancer have a 50 percent chance of living beyond five years.

Given those statistics, a CAD application that can improve the diagnostic certainty of a primary evaluation for lung cancer and automatically track changes in nodule size during follow-up studies should be warmly welcomed by the clinical community. Although the technology was approved by the FDA in 2001 for chest radiography, and in 2004 for CT, it has not yet achieved the support and infiltration mammography CAD enjoys.

However, an ever-growing bibliography of peer-reviewed scientific journal articles demonstrating its efficacy, the integration of applications into enterprise healthcare systems, and reimbursement for its use by more payors signals that the technology may at last be poised for mainstream adoption.

Radiography CAD Gets Results

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A recent prospective study published in Academic Radiology (May 2008) conducted by Edwin J.R. van Beek, MD, PhD, and colleagues in the department of radiology at the Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, provides strong support for lung CAD utilization.

Chest radiography was performed using a Siemens Medical Solutions DR unit on 324 patients for surveillance of metastatic disease with known malignancy. Their exams were interpreted by experienced pulmonary radiologists via the PACS at the facility, and utilized IQQA®-Chest CAD software from EDDA Technology.

The study evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of the radiologists’ diagnostic interpretations with and without the use of CAD. For studies without the assistance of CAD, the radiologists’ diagnostic performance showed a sensitivity of 63.6 percent and a specificity of 98.1 percent. However, with the addition of CAD, the radiologists demonstrated a specificity of 92.7 percent and a specificity of 96.2 percent.

“This benefit [lung CAD utilization] might have important implications, related to the identification of patients for whom therapy is failing or in the identification of early metastatic disease where different treatment regimens are still available,” the authors wrote. “Both observations should result in important management decisions, thus improving overall patient care.”

Hong Kong, China, June 17, 2008

EDDA Technology attended the 4th Hong Kong – Shanghai International Liver Congress (ILC) 2008, which was held on 12th – 15th June 2008 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, Hong Kong, China.

Health Imaging News | May 2, 2008 | Clinical Studies

The interpretation of chest radiographs for lung nodules can be improved using an automated computer-aided detection (CAD) nodule detection system, according to a prospective study published in the May issue of Academic Radiology.

Edwin J. R. van Beek, MD, PhD, and colleagues from the department of radiology at Carver College of Medicine in Iowa City, Iowa, sought to assess the performance of a real-time interactive pulmonary nodule analysis system for evaluation of chest digital radiographic (DR) images in a routine clinical environment.

The researchers used a real-time interactive pulmonary nodule analysis system for chest DR image softcopy reading—IQQA®-Chest from EDDA Technology in Princeton Junction, N.J.—with a PACS in a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer teaching hospital. Patients referred for follow-up of known cancer underwent chest DR, the authors wrote.

The investigators noted that resident radiologists, along with experienced chest radiologists, read the posteroanterior and lateral DR images using a PACS workstation. Subsequently, they applied the CAD program to the posteroanterior DR images, and changes (if any) in diagnosis were recorded.

Van Beek and colleagues performed a follow-up chest radiograph at least six months following the initial examination, or a follow-up CT scan of the chest within three months was performed to establish diagnostic accuracy.

Of 324 DR exams, the researchers performed follow-up imaging for 214 patients (67 percent) according to the parameters available.

Notably, the investigators found lung nodules in the initial group and subsequently in 35 patients (10 percent) without CAD. Using CAD, nodules were found and subsequently confirmed in 51 patients (15 percent), improving sensitivity from 63.8 percent to 92.7 percent.

Van Beek and colleagues said that the nodules were subsequently proved to be malignant in five of the 16 additional cases (31 percent). False-positive readings increased from three to six cases; specificity decreased from 98.1 percent to 96.2 percent, which is not statistically significant. There were 153 true negative cases (71.4 percent), according to the researchers.

The authors also noted that the improvement in reader performance comes with a minimal number of false-positive interpretations.

“The present study demonstrates that the use of a CAD program to assist in the interpretation of chest radiographs can enhance the diagnostic performance of radiologists,” according to van Beek et al.

Health Imaging & IT | January 1, 2008 | Features By Beth Walsh

Whether in China, Europe or the United States, clinicians are feeling the pressure of lung cancer as a major public health concern. Newer, enterprise versions of lung CAD software are making it easier than ever to apply the technology to chest x-rays and improve early detection Daqing Ma, MD, professor, Department of Radiology at Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University and head of Chest Radiology for the Chinese Radiology Society, has been using IQQA®–ChestV1.2 from EDDA Technology since 2005. The software was a stand-alone workstation version with DICOM communication with both the facility’s digital and computed radiography systems. Early in 2007, IQQA®-Chest V2.0, the enterprise version, was installed. Now, the x-ray lung CAD is available on any PACS workstation. Beijing Friendship was the		Daqing Ma, MD, professor, Department of Radiology at Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital MedicalUniversity and head for the Chinese RadiologySociety, has been using IQQA®-Chest v1.2 from EDDA Techology since 2005.
first hospital to adopt this enterprise-wide x-ray lung CAD in China. The hospital has about 4,000 outpatient cases a day and about 8,000 screening cases a year, says Ma, resulting in a heavy workload for the radiologists. The IQQA®-Chest system is used on screening and routine outpatient cases to help in the detection of small lung nodules less than 2 centimeters (cm).

Significant Progress

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“The progress of CAD going from standalone to enterprise is significant,” says Ma. With the enterprise version, his facility now has CAD fully incorporated into its reading workflow and into PACS softcopy reading. “This is important,” he says. “One may do clinical research with a standalone workstation, but to have CAD as part of the routine, enterprise availability is a must.”

Marco Das, MD, of the Department of Radiology at University Hospital in Aachen, Germany, agrees. Before installing a lung CAD server last fall, chest CT examinations had to be specifically sent to the CAD workstation and the reading radiologist had to switch workstations as well. “That’s the reason we only [used CAD] on selected cases,” he says. “The workflow was not too convenient.”
Das uses syngo Lung CAD from Siemens Medical Solutions and was one of the first sites to use the prototype of the software about six years ago. Now, his facility performs about 30 cases a day, primarily on lung cancer screening cases. Secondarily, he uses the software to look for metastases on oncology cases. With the ability to access CAD right from PACS, they use the software for routine scanning of every patient.

Valuable Time

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Hamilton Hospital in Webster City, Iowa, has been using RapidScreen, Riverain Medical’s x-ray based CAD system, since last April, says Radiology Administrator Matt McKinney. The company made the software and computer server available on a lease basis, so McKinney said the hospital jumped at the opportunity to integrate the relatively cutting-edge technology without a large capital outlay. “Usually technology like this starts in large institutions and filters its way down,” he says. “A lot of times, it’s toward the end of that spectrum that we can use a newer technology.”

McKinney says the hospital had been using mammography CAD so they were familiar with how CAD technology can be a benefit for the radiologist. Using Riverain’s criteria, the hospital does not perform chest x-rays on patients solely to use CAD for lung cancer screening, but rather on those patients who are already having a chest x-ray for a clinical reason. Hamilton Hospital has one on-site main radiologist and the group practice covers the hospital the rest of the time. The main radiologist “was pretty much on board after reading the literature,” says McKinney. “He was excited to provide this to our patients.”

And getting going with the software was quick and easy, he says. “It was a short in-service with the staff and the radiologist on what to expect and how to proceed. From start to finish, it was no more than a one-day process.” The radiologist need only add about 30 seconds to his reading time. After reviewing the x-ray, he then looks at an identical copy of the same image run through the CAD process and then spends a few more seconds reviewing any regions of interest. “He views that as valuable time,” says McKinney.

Barriers & Benefits

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Adding CAD into the workflow helps cover the limitations of chest x-ray. “Chest x-ray is the most common imaging procedure, but nodule detection from chest x-ray has challenges due to the normal structure overlap, heavy workload, different primary imaging reason, and new radiologists’ lack of experience,” says Ma. “Our results showed that both experienced and less experienced radiologists could benefit from lung CAD, although the less experienced had a greater benefit. For small nodules picked up at an early stage because of the use of IQQA®-Chest, and later confirmed on CT and followed through to have a positive pathology report, patient prognosis changes.”

Ma does caution that CAD brings a learning curve. “Some [physicians] get used to it faster than others. To implement, one needs to use it consistently. Organized training and sharing experience also are important to help make the whole process go faster and smoother.”

There are barriers to CAD becoming the standard of practice for lung cancer, says Ma. “Education, economic considerations, continued proof of clinical advantages and continued development of the technology all come into play, as with any new technology that’s emerging into the mainstream.”

However, “we also look forward to the continued development of CAD technology,” he says. “To have CAD tools for more lung diseases can be a direction. If the technology is extended to work on, for example, silicosis, it will be very helpful in our work.”

With cancer the leading cause of death in China, Ma says that early detection is a key to the solution. “In China, the combination of DR/CR and advanced CAD solutions for DR/CR offers an economic and effective alternative as the first tier of lung cancer screening and early lung cancer detection.”

Ma says that radiologists in this digital era need to acknowledge that they need computer tools to assist in better and more efficient practice in imaging. And while software and other tools at radiologists’ disposal can provide many benefits, CAD should never be considered a replacement for a radiologist’s interpretation of a study.

“As long as the software is not perfect, we should always use it as a second reader,” Das recommends. “We need to have our own experience on lung cancer and nodules and combine that with the additional results from the CAD.”

PRINCETON JUNCTION, NJ, November 19, 2007

Highlighted by the introduction of the IQQA® Enterprise Engine technology, EDDA is now reaching the broad radiology imaging market with its universal enterprise solution, which enables fast delivery and easy access of 2D/3D/4D advanced clinical applications on existing PACS workstations in virtually any hospital PACS environment without code-level integration. Available on the IQQA® Enterprise Engine are IQQA®-Chest for digital X-Ray lung nodule CAD, and IQQA®-Liver for contrast MDCT. The IQQA® Enterprise Engine is also capable of accommodating third party imaging applications.

IQQA®-Chest is the only FDA cleared system to offer real-time interactive diagnostic analysis of digital chest X-rays using a comprehensive set of tools to support physicians in their identification, confirmation and quantification of lung nodules. By offering a solution powered by intelligent tools with real-time interaction, the system seamlessly integrates advanced diagnostic analysis technologies into physicians’ softcopy reading process for improved workflow and clinical decision making. Published clinical studies have suggested that IQQA®-Chest may help physicians’ identification of small lesions and reduce inter-observer variation. With the number of chest X-rays that are read on a daily basis worldwide, the immediacy provided by IQQA®-Chest Enterprise allows for expanded use of chest CAD tools on a routine basis, with the prospect of enhancing diagnostic quality on a broad scale.

IQQA®-Liver Enterprise addresses the clinical challenge faced by physicians in efficiently dealing with tremendous data volume from contrast MDCT images of the liver. Combining advanced image analysis algorithms and powerful visualization tools, the software supports physicians to quickly and effectively distill critical diagnostic information from data volume of extraordinary size. It performs automatic anatomy-based phase registration to allow simultaneous visualization and easy cross-referencing of lesion location and characteristics across different phases. IQQA®-Liver Enterprise further provides 3D segmentation and measurement tools for visualization and analysis of liver, liver lesions, and vascular structures. This volumetric analysis not only provides physicians with a powerful visualization aid, but also offers quantification tools to support their clinical decision making and patient care management.

The enabling IQQA® Enterprise Engine (IQQA®-EE) technology is a direct response to the critical challenge that physicians and hospital IT now face in integrating more and more advanced clinical applications into existing PACS workflow. Access to such applications via dedicated stand- alone workstations is no longer accepted as an option in an already stressed workflow. Although static image results could often be sent from these stand-alone workstations back to a primary PACS workstation for review, it is still not possible to enjoy access to the full interactive functionality of these advanced applications at the PACS viewing station.

The IQQA® Enterprise Engine aims to redefine how advanced clinical application can be accessed by physicians and managed by hospital IT. Physicians can now enjoy immediate access to the full real-time 2D/3D/4D functionality of advanced clinical applications at existing
PACS viewing stations. In addition, since the solution does not require code level integration with existing hospital PACS environment, application installation is completed quickly by simply setting up network communication. Possible additional maintenance resources of having to keep up with periodic PACS software upgrade are also saved.

“EDDA is committed to innovation in delivering diagnostic aid solutions. Not only do we develop advanced clinical applications to help improve the early detection, early diagnosis and precise treatment of lethal diseases, but also we see the tremendous importance of the innovative delivery mechanism to enable broad access to such applications”, says Dr. Jian-Zhong Qian, President and CEO of EDDA Technology. “From the success of development of IQQA®-Chest Enterprise to IQQA®-Liver Enterprise, the IQQA® Enterprise Engine demonstrates a new economic way to integrate 2D/3D/4D applications with virtually any existing hospital PACS systems without code level integration. Considering the trend of emerging advanced clinical applications for diagnostic decision aid, the impact of such accessibility enabling technology to deliver diagnostic aid on a broad scale will be significant.”

The IQQA® Enterprise Engine has been successfully demonstrated to run in numerous PACS environments including AGFA, Dynamic Imaging, GE, Kodak, McKesson, Philips, Siemens, etc.

EDDA Technology will be exhibiting the IQQA® Family of Clinical Applications and Platforms in Booth #6534 in the North Hall of McCormick Place at the 93rd Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), November 25 – 30, 2007.

About EDDA Technology
EDDA Technology, Inc. is an innovative clinical computer solution provider in diagnostic imaging and analysis. EDDA offers a series of new generation software products to enable early detection of diseases, and enhance efficiency and precision in diagnosis and treatment. EDDA’s goal is to deliver, with broad accessibility, advanced information analysis technologies that improve clinical workflow and accuracy. A privately held Delaware corporation, EDDA is headquartered in Princeton Junction, New Jersey, and has a subsidiary in Shanghai, China. IQQA is a registered trademark of EDDA Technology.

For further information, please log on to www.edda-tech.com, or call 609-936-8282.