VOLPARA SOLUTIONS PAIRS WITH MICROSOFT’S AI TO BREAK DOWN BARRIERS OF BREAST CANCER SCREENING

Microsoft has long led the way in artificial intelligence (AI) proving time and time again in the last decade that when AI is executed properly, it can understand, anticipate and respond to people’s needs. Now, Microsoft has teamed up with Kiwi firm Volpara Solutions, using the Microsoft platform Azure, to implement AI in breast screening to catch breast cancers earlier.

Upwards of 3300 people are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. Early detection is continuously heralded as the best line of defense to reduce the 600+ deaths a year it causes in New Zealand alone. Volpara Solutions, based in Wellington, now implements the use of Microsoft’s leading AI platform, Azure, to automatically and objectively assess a women’s breast density, which can often be a hurdle when trying to detect cancer. Volpara’s software uses Azure to capture data that helps in improving algorithms to make the assessments more accurate over time.

“AI is continuing to have tangible, useful impacts bringing deep learning to our daily lives, and now, the move to improve cancer detection has already made waves within the medical community,” according to Volpara CEO Ralph Highnam.

“In New Zealand, some practices are using our Volpara®Density™ software to understand which women might benefit from supplemental screening such as ultrasound or MRI. Other practices are using Volpara®Enterprise™ software to more carefully monitor and improve the quality of their work. Our customers have told us… [On feedback] we’ve had, ‘I couldn't do this without your software anymore.’ through to ‘You've helped me detect cancers early I would never have found otherwise.’”

Highnam’s Volpara partnership with Microsoft is slowly revolutionising an industry and could fundamentally change lives, along with increasing the comfort, safety and improved productivity that can come second in traditional mammograms.

Born from necessity after losing his mother-in-law to breast cancer, Volpara’s co-founder, Professor Sir Mike Brady saw the need for better, and was inspired to find a way to improve the process. Yet the optimistic goal to save lives through

the Microsoft AI platform does not come without its hurdles.

“We've become experts in making objective previously subjective assessments of breast tissue,” says Highnam. “That means that disagreements exist between people’s assessment and our results. Convincing them to trust the objective results can take time and it’s critical they trust the AI algorithms. New Zealand and US differences in time, geography and culture is challenging. We have 50 engineers in Wellington, 25 sales staff in the US. We spend a lot of time making sure the two groups are communicating.”

“Our products today focus on productivity, quality, safety, and comfort,” he says. “With the help of Microsoft’s lead in artificial intelligence, we want to make the next generation of breast cancer risk models more accurate, so we can predict who might develop breast cancer. We're sick of seeing younger women with small kids get breast cancer, let's predict act earlier to dramatically cut the number of deaths each year.”

Ultimately, we want to be using the data we've collected to help generate the next generation of breast cancer risk models, so we can predict who might develop breast cancer. We're sick of seeing younger women with small kids get breast cancer, l et's predict better and act earlier.

Volpara and Microsoft’s Azure are increasing their reach with this proven technology to remove limitations and provide access to all in need. To find out more visit www.volparasolutions.com.