AtlantiCare First in Northeast to Deploy Optellum AI Alongside Robotics for Early Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

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Feb 23, 2023, 03:05 ET

AtlantiCare joined leading healthcare systems worldwide by becoming the first system in the northeastern U.S. to use the Optellum Virtual Nodule Clinic.

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J., Feb. 23, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- AtlantiCare is the first healthcare system in the northeastern U.S. to use Optellum's Virtual Nodule Clinic. Located in New Jersey, it is integrating the innovative technology into its early lung cancer diagnosis program at its Heart & Lung and Cancer Care institutes at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center (ARMC).

The Optellum Virtual Nodule Clinic pre-operative AI assessment helps inform clinical decisions for appropriate follow-up interventions using the MONARCH™ robotic bronchoscopy techniques, with the goal of achieving the earliest possible and least invasive treatment. Thanks to this unique combination, the clinician can find patients with the smallest and hardest to reach tumors and deploy the robotic bronchoscope to reach and biopsy the regions highlighted with the help of the Optellum AI.

By adopting the Optellum Virtual Nodule Clinic, the Interventional Pulmonology team at AtlantiCare’s Lung Nodule Clinic, led by Amit Borah, M.D., interventional pulmonologist, focuses on identifying and systematically following up on patients with incidentally detected lung nodules.

Lung cancer is among the most common types of cancer and the leading cause of cancer deaths in the world, according to the American Lung Association. The current worldwide five-year survival rate is 20 percent, primarily because most patients are diagnosed after the disease has progressed to an advanced stage. However, the survival rate for small tumors treated at Stage 1A is up to 90 percent, a disparity that highlights a critical need for diagnosis and treatment at the earliest stage possible.[1]

One of the best opportunities for early diagnosis of small, pre-symptomatic lung cancers is presented by the two million patients in the United States every year whose lung nodule is identified incidentally during chest CT scans ordered for other reasons, such as during an emergency department visit or cardiac event.

Optellum is the leader in AI-enabled lung cancer diagnosis, and the first and only medtech company to attain FDA clearance, CE-MDR in the EU, and UKCA in the UK for its software platform Virtual Nodule Clinic. This first-of-a-kind platform can help physicians identify and track at-risk patients so that they can biopsy concerning lesions early and start treatments sooner to improve the outcome of patients' care.

By adopting the Optellum Virtual Nodule Clinic, the Interventional Pulmonology team at AtlantiCare's Lung Nodule Clinic, led by Amit Borah, M.D., interventional pulmonologist, focuses on identifying and systematically following up on patients with incidentally detected lung nodules.

Optellum's integrated Lung Cancer Prediction capability also helps AtlantiCare clinicians prioritize patients at high risk of having lung cancer. Since AtlantiCare began using the Patient Discovery search it has identified approximately 50 out of 300 patients who had lesions that need close surveillance.

"Early-stage lung cancer symptoms are often vague or mimic those of other illnesses," said Borah. "Through this technology, we are detecting suspicious nodules at earlier stages than ever, which is so critical to saving lives."

Borah explained the technology sends an alert to AtlantiCare's Interventional Pulmonology team if it detects a nodule through a CT scan done at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center. "This could be any patient whose scan shows the lungs or a portion of the lungs. We follow up with the patient and the patient's primary care and other providers. We then determine whether the individual can benefit from robotic bronchoscopy to biopsy and/or treat the nodule at its earliest stages – before cancer spreads or a nodule becomes cancerous."

The ground-breaking AI solution operates within AtlantiCare's Lung Nodule Clinic. AtlantiCare was one of the first healthcare organizations in the nation to offer the Ethicon's MONARCH™ robotic bronchoscopy platform, acquired by Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) in 2019.

The Virtual Nodule Clinic pre-operative AI assessment helps inform clinical decisions for appropriate follow-up interventions using the MONARCH™ robotic bronchoscopy techniques, with the goal of achieving the earliest possible and least invasive treatment. Thanks to this unique combination, the clinician can find patients with the smallest and hardest to reach tumors and deploy the robotic bronchoscope to reach and biopsy the regions highlighted with the help of the Optellum AI.

"We have already identified suspicious tumors in individuals who have no known risk of lung cancer through this technology," added Borah. "It will enhance the life-saving progress we've experienced since offering robotic bronchoscopy to our patients."

Václav Potěšil PhD, Optellum's founder and chief business officer, also commented on the partnership: "Our collaboration with AtlantiCare is noteworthy because we added a new healthcare system to our growing network, where we can work closely with the interventional pulmonology team to evaluate how combining the powers of the Optellum AI and robotic bronchoscopy platforms impacts health outcomes for patients, and take AI-driven early lung cancer interception to the next level."

About AtlantiCare

AtlantiCare is an integrated healthcare system based in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, whose more than 6,000 staff, providers and volunteers serve the community in more than 100 locations in Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, and Ocean counties of southern New Jersey. Its vision of building healthy communities together drives its mission of making a difference in health and healing, one person at a time, through caring and trusting relationships. A Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award winner, AtlantiCare was also included in Modern Healthcare's Best Places to Work. AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center was the 105th hospital in the nation to attain the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Magnet™ designation in 2004 and earned redesignation in 2008, 2013, and 2018. Learn more at atlanticare.org.

About Optellum

Optellum is a commercial-stage lung-health company providing artificial intelligence decision-support software that assists physicians in early diagnosis and optimal treatment for their patients. The company was founded so that every lung disease patient is diagnosed and treated at the earliest possible stage, when the probability of better health outcomes is highest. In 2021, the Oxford-based medtech company achieved FDA 510(k) clearance for the application of AI decision-support software in lung cancer diagnosis, and has since announced strategic partnerships in the USA with GE Healthcare and the Lung Cancer Initiative at Johnson & Johnson, while the Virtual Nodule Clinic has been implemented in leading healthcare systems across the USA. Optellum has headquarters at the Oxford Centre for Innovation in Oxford, United Kingdom and a U.S. office at the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas. For more information, visit optellum.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Tim Cox | Tyto PR for Optellum | [email protected]
Jennifer Tornetta| Manager, Media Relations and Public Affairs, AtlantiCare |
[email protected]

[1] AJCC Lung Cancer Staging manual (7th edition)

SOURCE Optellum