Google Health licenses breast cancer screening AI to iCAD

Med-tech company iCAD announced it would incorporate Google Health’s mammography AI technology into its breast imaging solutions thanks to a strategic development and commercialization agreement. 

Cancer detection and therapy solutions platform iCAD will utilize Google’s AI breast imaging technology in its portfolio, including its clinical decision support tool for breast cancer risk estimation ProFound AI Risk. 

The deal will bring Google’s AI technology into clinical practice and marks the first time the Alphabet subsidiary’s AI research model has been licensed with a mammography vendor.  

The N.H.-based company will also utilize Google Cloud’s infrastructure to accelerate the commercialization of its cloud-based offerings. 

THE LARGER TREND

In 2020 a study was published in Nature showing how the tech giant’s deep learning-based AI system fared to radiologists in detecting breast cancer during the early stages of the disease.

Results showed the AI tool decreased the rate of false positives by 5.7% in the U.S. and 1.2% in the U.K. and false negatives by 9.4% and 2.7%, respectively, outperforming radiologists. 

In 2021, Google joined Northwestern Medicine in a clinical research study that used an investigational AI model to flag participant’s mammogram scans for review by a radiologist if they showed a higher likelihood of breast cancer, aiming to reduce the time to diagnosis. 

Google’s use of AI in healthcare expands beyond cancer detection. The Calif.-based tech company has been exploring using AI to detect diabetic retinopathy using its Automated Retinal Disease Assessment (ARDA), and, in March, announced its AI-backed tool for clinicians in the EHR space called Conditions.