Jul 26 2019
Progenics Pharmaceuticals, Inc., an oncology company developing innovative medicines and imaging technology for targeting and treating cancer, announced their collaboration with the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System (VAGLAHS) on Progenics’ AI research program.
The collaborative AI research program aims to apply machine learning to medical imaging modalities, enabling standardized, information-driven healthcare practices in prostate cancer. The project is the nation’s first collaborative effort to validate cutting-edge machine learning tools for improving treatment management of Veterans with prostate cancer.
“We are pleased to be collaborating with the VAGLAHS and Dr. Matthew Rettig, Chief of Hematology-Oncology, on the AI imaging platform, bringing together the largest integrated healthcare network in the U.S. with the leader in prostate cancer detection and monitoring,” said Mark Baker, Chief Executive Officer of Progenics. “Progenics’ AI research program will provide the VAGLAHS, and in the future, the entire VA, with standardized, quantitative information to improve the quality of life, care and treatment of our Veterans with prostate cancer. We believe that artificial intelligence can be applied successfully to automate the segmentation, classification, and quantification of tumors, thereby enabling improved treatment decisions for men with prostate cancer.”
In the project, the VAGLAHS network will gain access to Progenics’ machine learning platforms, which includes the automated Bone Scan Index (aBSI) and the PSMA-AI platforms. The collaboration would explore novel predictive machine learning algorithms from the digital medical images and its associated clinical outcomes. These novel algorithms would be prospectively validated at VAGLAHS for effective healthcare management of Veterans with prostate cancer.
Data Privacy and Security
The research collaboration will take every step necessary to protect the Veteran’s data. All image and associated clinical data would be anonymized before being processed by the Progenics’ AI platform. Progenics’ AI platform is designed, developed, deployed and maintained according to cybersecurity guidance; NIST cybersecurity framework, the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP). All data handled by the platform is encrypted in transit and at rest.