RadNet closes two acquisitions, Aidence and Quantib
January 25, 2022
by Gus Iversen, Editor in Chief
RadNet has closed its buys of a pair of unrelated Dutch radiology AI firms — Aidence and Quantib. No financial terms were disclosed.
Aidence focuses on clinical solutions for pulmonary nodule management and lung cancer screening with its first commercial product, Veye Lung Nodules, a CE-marked AI-based lung-nodule detection and management system. Veye, which can handle thousands of CT scans a week, already has customers in seven European countries. It has been submitted for FDA 510(k) clearance.
Quantib, with clients in over 20 countries, focuses on MR-based AI solutions, running on its AI Node platform, for prostate cancer and neurodegeneration. It has a number of CE marked, FDA 510(k) cleared applications, including Quantib Prostate, Quantib Brain and Quantib ND.
Besides Quantib Brain and Quantib Brain ND, the company is in “advanced development of an AI algorithm” for MR breast screening, which would fit well with DeepHealth's mammography solutions, a firm acquired in 2020 by RadNet.
“With the addition of Aidence and Quantib, we will now have effective screening solutions for the three most prevalent cancers,” RadNet Chairman and CEO Dr. Howard Berger, said in a company statement.
Besides lung cancer screening with CT, which he called “dramatically underutilized,” he advised that going forward, lung screenings “will play an important role for those who suffered from COVID-19 and who may have a requirement to monitor longer-term issues with their lungs.”
“We believe the amount of chest CTs could significantly increase if high-risk patients and patients with long-term COVID-19 effects have access to low-cost, effective screening programs that we believe Aidence’s solutions can facilitate.”
The Quantib acquisition will further RadNet's ability to provide prostate screening.
“The opportunity to create a lower-cost, more accurate service,” he suggested, “allows for a conversation about creating large-scale screening programs for appropriately-qualified male patient populations, akin to how mammography is utilized today to detect and manage breast disease in women.”
Combining with RadNet, noted Mark-Jan Harte, co-founder and CEO of Aidence “will accelerate our growth and innovation pipeline to serve clinicians with automated and integrated AI solutions for oncology. Our vision is that data is key to improving the prevention, management and treatment of disease.”
Quantib CEO Arthur Post Uiterweer also noted the scale brought by RadNet to his firm's efforts. “We believe our AI Node technology and substantial clinical experience from serving our customers can improve the rate at which future AI innovations are shared across RadNet’s hundreds of locations and the radiology industry at large.”
RadNet, the biggest operator of stand-alone diagnostic imaging centers in the U.S., hit reset after the initial impact of Covid on its business, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal. Its revenue plunged 78% in April 2020 versus a year earlier and took time to come back to pre-COVID levels.
The firm used the reversal as a chance reorganize and get ready for a new digital future — it closed and consolidated some of its centers, laid off about 375 staff, and brought new tech on board, such as 3D tomosynthesis, a boon to scanning dense breast tissue.
It also acquired DeepHealth in a $50 million stock deal — and its AI-driven mammogram technology.
In January 2021, DeepHealth software surpassed five full-time, breast-fellowship-trained expert radiologists in reading the same mammogram screenings, with the findings suggesting that the algorithms may help detect cancer one to two years earlier than standard interpretation in many cases.
“Most cancer researchers believe that patients whose cancer is detected and treated before it has metastasized have greater survival and can avoid more expensive therapies, and so detecting cancer one or two years earlier, when it has a lower chance of metastasis, implies both higher quality and lower cost of care,” lead author Bill Lotter, chief technology officer and co-founder of DeepHealth, told HCB News at the time.
Aidence focuses on clinical solutions for pulmonary nodule management and lung cancer screening with its first commercial product, Veye Lung Nodules, a CE-marked AI-based lung-nodule detection and management system. Veye, which can handle thousands of CT scans a week, already has customers in seven European countries. It has been submitted for FDA 510(k) clearance.
Quantib, with clients in over 20 countries, focuses on MR-based AI solutions, running on its AI Node platform, for prostate cancer and neurodegeneration. It has a number of CE marked, FDA 510(k) cleared applications, including Quantib Prostate, Quantib Brain and Quantib ND.
Besides Quantib Brain and Quantib Brain ND, the company is in “advanced development of an AI algorithm” for MR breast screening, which would fit well with DeepHealth's mammography solutions, a firm acquired in 2020 by RadNet.
“With the addition of Aidence and Quantib, we will now have effective screening solutions for the three most prevalent cancers,” RadNet Chairman and CEO Dr. Howard Berger, said in a company statement.
Besides lung cancer screening with CT, which he called “dramatically underutilized,” he advised that going forward, lung screenings “will play an important role for those who suffered from COVID-19 and who may have a requirement to monitor longer-term issues with their lungs.”
“We believe the amount of chest CTs could significantly increase if high-risk patients and patients with long-term COVID-19 effects have access to low-cost, effective screening programs that we believe Aidence’s solutions can facilitate.”
The Quantib acquisition will further RadNet's ability to provide prostate screening.
“The opportunity to create a lower-cost, more accurate service,” he suggested, “allows for a conversation about creating large-scale screening programs for appropriately-qualified male patient populations, akin to how mammography is utilized today to detect and manage breast disease in women.”
Combining with RadNet, noted Mark-Jan Harte, co-founder and CEO of Aidence “will accelerate our growth and innovation pipeline to serve clinicians with automated and integrated AI solutions for oncology. Our vision is that data is key to improving the prevention, management and treatment of disease.”
Quantib CEO Arthur Post Uiterweer also noted the scale brought by RadNet to his firm's efforts. “We believe our AI Node technology and substantial clinical experience from serving our customers can improve the rate at which future AI innovations are shared across RadNet’s hundreds of locations and the radiology industry at large.”
RadNet, the biggest operator of stand-alone diagnostic imaging centers in the U.S., hit reset after the initial impact of Covid on its business, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal. Its revenue plunged 78% in April 2020 versus a year earlier and took time to come back to pre-COVID levels.
The firm used the reversal as a chance reorganize and get ready for a new digital future — it closed and consolidated some of its centers, laid off about 375 staff, and brought new tech on board, such as 3D tomosynthesis, a boon to scanning dense breast tissue.
It also acquired DeepHealth in a $50 million stock deal — and its AI-driven mammogram technology.
In January 2021, DeepHealth software surpassed five full-time, breast-fellowship-trained expert radiologists in reading the same mammogram screenings, with the findings suggesting that the algorithms may help detect cancer one to two years earlier than standard interpretation in many cases.
“Most cancer researchers believe that patients whose cancer is detected and treated before it has metastasized have greater survival and can avoid more expensive therapies, and so detecting cancer one or two years earlier, when it has a lower chance of metastasis, implies both higher quality and lower cost of care,” lead author Bill Lotter, chief technology officer and co-founder of DeepHealth, told HCB News at the time.