AI Solution Turns Inexpensive POC Ultrasound Devices into Powerful Diagnostic Tools

By MedImaging International staff writers
Posted on 29 Aug 2022

Image: The AI innovation in ultrasound addresses huge unmet clinical needs in liver disease (Photo courtesy of Oncoustics)

Chronic liver disease is one of the fastest-growing causes of morbidity and mortality in the world, affecting more than two billion people globally and is rising dramatically, driven by a condition called Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). NAFLD has grown rapidly due to the rise in obesity, metabolic disorders and type 2 diabetes. Currently, detecting CLD is a challenge, potentially involving high-end imaging systems, specialists, and invasive biopsies. Now, a new AI-driven technology for the low-cost assessment of structural diseases at the point of care aims to disrupt liver care by facilitating easier early disease detection, diagnosis, and patient management.

Oncoustics’ (Toronto ON, Canada) SaMD (software as a medical device) technology is based on its patented approach that utilizes both the ultrasound images as well as the acoustic data derived from raw sound signals to automatically differentiate tissue types. Every different type of tissue in the body bounces back a unique acoustic signature and Oncoustics mines these signals to differentiate healthy versus diseased tissues. Oncoustics has been collecting ultrasound signal datasets and has amassed the largest RF signal data set in the world. This hardware-agnostic approach works on any ultrasound system, including new low-cost point-of-care ultrasound systems, making this an affordable and accessible diagnostic tool. Leveraging the rise of new point-of-care ultrasound systems, Oncoustics takes advantage of all the benefits of these systems, including their low cost, portability and ease of use, and builds on this by guiding the data acquisition and providing easy-to-read results via a smartphone app.

Oncoustics offers a suite of disease and anatomy-focused apps that work on any point-of-care ultrasound and can be used by any MD/Nurse/Tech as a basic primary care office instrument, without the need to look at images. Oncoustics’ AI solutions turn inexpensive point-of-care ultrasound devices into powerful diagnostic tools for faster, cost effective detection and monitoring of diseases, including diseases in the liver, prostate, kidney, breast and thyroid. Oncoustics’ first product, the OnX liver assessment solution, is focused on detecting structural liver diseases including fibrosis and steatosis (fat) that can occur in all types of CLD. The Oncoustics platform promises a whole new level of access to care with the benefits of ease of use, accessibility, affordability, and optimizing clinical workflows.

“There’s a tsunami of need around detecting these types of liver diseases and our ultimate goal is to decrease or eliminate the need for high-end imaging or painful and invasive biopsies,” said Beth Rogozinski, CEO, Oncoustics.