Smarter Systems, Happier Patients

Globally, over the last twenty years, life expectancy has increased from an average of 66-years-old to 73-years-old. But as we begin to live longer lives, we become more susceptible to serious illness. How can technology assist us in identifying diseases early and help us live healthier lives?

Always seeking value from innovation, Fujifilm aims to improve society by providing the technology that helps people live long and healthy lives. The company entered the medical field in 1936 with X-ray film. During the 1980s, it developed the world’s first digital X-ray image, which is now an industry standard, with Fuji Computed Radiography. Today, Fujifilm continues to expand its medical imaging range.

This includes strengthening its position as a leader in picture archiving and communication systems (PACS). Fujifilm’s PACS offers a web-based user interface for fast image display, providing medical professionals with the tools to query multiple image archives at the same time.

Fujifilm’s PACS solutions support clinical collaboration and workflow efficiency, and its stringent security measures have led to its use by the US Department of Defense, as well as medical institutions across the world.

The company wants to create a society where people can live healthily for longer. And that means contributing not just to imaging but to diagnosis, treatment, and disease prevention. Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has a major role in supporting that.

Across the world, as medical costs rise, populations grow, and people live longer, there is a critical shortage of doctors and nurses. According to the World Health Organization^*1, almost two-thirds of the world’s population has no access to diagnostic imaging. Diagnostic imaging can help resolve between 70 to 80% of diagnostic problems and combined with smart technology, hospitals can reduce the burden on patients, the state, and medical professionals.

Early detection means patients can start treatment before symptoms get worse. Because treatment is started earlier, while the condition is milder, medications are often less aggressive.

AI technology can also help make medical professionals’ jobs easier. It can support decision-making, while partially automated workflows can help to alleviate physician exhaustion brought on by long hours and heavy workloads.

• *1 Data published by the World Health Organization

The US is facing a shortfall of up to 124,000 physicians by 2034^*2, with radiologists among them, and this means increased medical caseloads. According to Dr. Richard Epstein, Chief Medical Information Officer, University Radiology Group, “It is not unusual to have MRI images in the hundreds and CT scans in the thousands. The volume of images we’re looking at is so much larger than it used to be. So (radiology) naturally lends itself to AI technology and deep learning”.

AI technology can help make radiologists’ time go further. Fujifilm provides healthcare organizations with a platform to connect AI algorithms for different diseases, from multiple vendors with single PACS, aiming to allow doctors to streamline the diagnostic process. Fujifilm’s image processing heritage is married with trained AI algorithms which opens up the possibility of flagging abnormalities that may be overlooked by the human eye, aiming to obtain an even more accurate diagnosis.

• *2 Data published by the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges)

Fujifilm’s medical AI technology uses deep learning, an approach that allows AI to mimic the human learning process. Fujifilm’s vast experience in healthcare enables it to optimize materials and data for medical AI technology. This has resulted in great success, most recently in the ongoing study of various lung diseases. In some countries, Fujifilm supplies its own algorithm, developed by AI technology for those diseases.

With its suite of solutions, Fujifilm aims to free medical professionals from the repetitive work of measuring nodules and writing reports so they can focus on diagnosing and treating patients. Smart AI technology coupled with up-to-the-second medical imaging technology helps professionals do their job and provides ongoing help to medical systems in developing countries.