FDA clears ‘world’s first’ artificial intelligence tool to simplify thyroid ultrasound scans
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared what its creatoers believe to be the “world’s first” artificial intelligence tool to simplify thyroid ultrasound scanning.
Medo AI announced the regulatory win on Thursday, noting that imaging providers perform more than 1.5 million scans of this gland each year in the U.S. Such high volumes, coupled with the tedious review of such images to locate and measure nodules, can leave providers overwhelmed, the company noted.
Its newly cleared product, Medo-Thyroid, processes video sweeps of the glands, with AI selecting optimal images, calculating measurements, and helping characterize nodules using the Thyroid Imaging Reporting & Data System.
“It's especially helpful to radiologists when following up multiple nodules,” said Jacob Jaremko, MD, a rad and co-founder of Medo AI, which has offices in both Canada and Singapore.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.