World's First 30 Minute Full Body MRI Scan Offers Fast, Accurate and Affordable Cancer Diagnosis
Posted on 02 Jun 2023
A cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) solution enhances MR image quality, paving the way for a reduction in scan time and consequently, the cost of MRI procedures. This innovation now makes it feasible to complete a full-body MRI scan in just 30 minutes, a first in the world.
Ezra’s (New York, NY, USA) newest proprietary AI, Ezra Flash, which has recently been granted 510(k) clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for brain imaging, enhances the quality of MRI scans, thereby facilitating rapid, cost-effective cancer detection. The company has developed a fast MRI protocol producing lower-quality images, which are significantly enhanced by Ezra Flash. The AI was trained using Ezra's proprietary dataset of hundreds of thousands of MRI images, sourced from both patients and healthy individuals. Ezra taught the AI to evaluate the essential elements in MRI scans needed to render a complete and accurate image. This capability allows Ezra to improve image quality for high-speed MRI scans, pushing the boundaries of current standards. A multi-step process was used to validate Ezra Flash wherein five radiologists evaluated the performance of the AI both qualitatively and quantitatively. Their expertise played a vital role in selecting an AI model capable of enhancing MRI images without masking any existing pathology.
Ezra provides individuals with preventative, proactive, and continual cancer screening through its Full Body MRI. This allows for the monitoring of potential cancer and over 500 conditions across up to 13 organs, facilitating earlier disease detection. Ezra also incorporates a low-dose chest CT scan, where appropriate, for lung cancer screening and evaluating heart disease risk. Previously, the Ezra Full Body MRI took an hour and cost USD 1,950, but with the implementation of Ezra Flash, it now takes only 30 minutes and costs USD 1,350, marking a price reduction of 30%. Ezra's ultimate ambition is to offer a 15-minute full-body MRI scan at a cost of USD 500, a goal they aim to achieve in the next two to three years.
“The FDA clearance of Ezra Flash is an important landmark – the beginning of a sea change in how medical imaging is used,” said Daniel K. Sodickson, MD, PhD, a leading biomedical imaging researcher who worked closely with Ezra’s team of AI researchers in the development of Ezra Flash. “Progressive increases in imaging speed over time have already resulted in myriad benefits to patients and physicians. Until now, though, imaging has principally been used for the diagnosis and characterization of disease once other signs and symptoms have already developed. Ezra, on the other hand, is using MRI as a tool for early detection of cancer prior to the development of symptoms - a safety net of proactive monitoring that has previously only been available to patients with certain well-established risk factors. Ezra Flash will increase the accessibility of early-warning MRI, and Ezra’s dataset of repeated scans over time will help it to prevent false positives and ensure that the warnings it provides are appropriate and actionable.”
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