PENTAX Medical Clears CE Mark for New AI-Assisted Polyp Detector

By HospiMedica International staff writers

[13 Jan 2020]
Image: DISCOVERY™ (Photo courtesy of PENTAX Medical)

PENTAX Medical (Tokyo, Japan) has cleared CE mark for DISCOVERY, its Artificial Intelligence (AI) assisted polyp detector designed to support endoscopists in finding potential polyps during a colorectal examination.

PENTAX Medical, a division of HOYA Group, provides endoscopic imaging devices and solutions to the global medical community. DISCOVERY is the outcome of a close cooperation between PENTAX Medical research center located in Augsburg, Germany, and expert clinical partners from six of the leading medical institutions across the world. For this next generation development, a total of more than 120,000 files from approximately 300 clinical cases were used for the software training. By this, DISCOVERY is able to assist with the detection of potential polyps in real time. The system is built in a flat monitor to provide a high usability as it can be used with any of PENTAX Medical video endoscopy systems to highlight potential polyps. The menu is self-explaining and uses an intuitive touchscreen interface.

"The benefits for the customers are outstanding. Our vision was to bring Artificial Intelligence into the operating room in the most user-friendly way. We wanted to give doctors the possibility to use this exciting new technology to strive for a better clinical outcome and maximize the patient care," said Wolfgang Mayer, Managing Director, R&D, PENTAX Medical Augsburg.

"As endoscopists one of our major tasks is to reduce the incidence of colorectal cancer. I am very confident that the DISCOVERY will translate into increasing our own Adenoma Detection Rate and therewith will contribute to reduce colorectal cancer mortality," said Professor Timo Rath, Professor of Endoscopy and Molecular Imaging, University of Erlangen, Nuremberg, Germany.

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