An agreement has been announced between Ibex Medical Analytics and Source LDPath, part of Source BioScience. It will expand the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) to Source’s entire pathology network.
Ibex works with AI-powered cancer diagnostics and the expansion builds on its previous work with LDPath. Source, which provides integrated laboratory services and products, acquired LDPath earlier this year, creating Source LDPath.
The acquisition is one of the largest, private providers of cellular and digital pathology services in the U.K. The deployment will include new AI-powered tools for diagnosing multiple tissue types. It will also support pathologists with improved diagnostic accuracy and efficiency.
Ibex AI powered cancer diagnostics
Sanj Lallie, AI director, Source LDPath, said: “We are building the largest private digital pathology network in the U.K. Helping in mitigating the impact of the continued shortage of pathologists is part of our work. We want to address the NHS backlog in cancer diagnosis, which has become a national priority.
“Proud we’re expanding our diagnostic capabilities with Ibex’s world-renowned AI technology. It’s adopted at scale across our network to help ensure that cancer patients receive an accurate and timely diagnosis.”
NHS pathology missing reporting targets
Across the U.K., patients have faced significant delays in cancer diagnosis due to a shortage of pathologists. There has also been a rise in cancer cases added to growing workloads imposed on pathology departments. This has created a significant backlog in cases following the pandemic.
Advancements include roughly 275,000 women undergoing breast biopsy and 100,000 men undergoing prostate biopsy in the U.K. each year. Yet NHS pathology services often miss on their reporting targets, leading to delays in treatment initiation. This may impact patients’ survival rates.
Clearly, the companies say, there is a growing need for automated solutions and decision-support tools. This is to help pathologists detect cancer to accurately and quickly. Ibex’s Galen platform will be made available to the entire Source network. This currently spans more than 200 pathologists who will use Ibex’s AI-powered workflows. They will integrated into an in-house developed LIS and reporting system.
Alistair Robson is medical director of Source LDPath. He said: “I have seen first-hand how transformative and impactful AI-powered tools can be. Particularly for a pathologist’s work, the continued rollout of Ibex AI across U.K. hospital trusts is encouraging. I am looking forward to seeing Ibex’s newly announced biomarker scoring tools. To see them helping breast pathologists improve diagnosis of IHC stained slides.”
Ibex most widely deployed AI
The Galen suite of solutions from Ibex is the first and most widely deployed AI technology in pathology. It’s used in routine clinical practice in laboratories, hospitals, and health systems worldwide. Pathologists are also being helped in a variety of tasks during the diagnosis of breast, prostate, and gastric biopsies.
Helping improve the accuracy of cancer diagnosis is part of the solution. It helps reduce turnaround time, boost productivity, and improve user experience for the pathologists. Galen demonstrated outstanding outcomes across multiple clinical studies performed on various tissue types and diagnostic workflows.
“We are thrilled to expand the deployment of our innovative AI technology. It is already used in routine clinical practice in the UK. Now it will go into additional NHS trusts,” said Stuart Shand, Ibex Medical Analytics’ chief commercial officer.
“It is exciting to see our Galen platform become available to many more pathology services. This through our partnership with Source, empowering pathologists who face unprecedented case-loads and helping oncologists improve care for cancer patients.”