Thirona, a Netherlands-based global company providing high-precision advanced lung image analysis with artificial intelligence, has announced multiple partnerships recently, following its receipt of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its latest update of its AI-based clinical software LungQ (v3.0.0) in January, 2024. The company, founded in 2014 by female scientist now Thirona CEO Eva van Rikxoort.
June 27, 2024 — Thirona, a Netherlands-based global company providing high-precision advanced lung image analysis with artificial intelligence (AI), has announced multiple partnerships recently, following its receipt of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its latest update of its AI-based clinical software LungQ (v3.0.0).
The company, founded in 2014 by female scientist now Therona CEO Eva van Rikxoort, partners with research institutions and medical companies in their innovation programs aimed to enable breakthroughs in precision medicine for personalized treatment of pulmonary diseases. Several of those recently-announced partnerships are detailed in this news summary.
Thirona and Blackford Announce Partnership to Enhance AI-based Lung Analysis
Blackford, a strategic artificial intelligence (AI) platform and solutions provider, and Thirona, developer of AI-based lung image analysis, recently announced a commercial partnership to bring the LungQ solution to healthcare professionals via the Blackford Platform, according to a written statement issued in May.
The announcement noted that Blackford provides healthcare professionals access to an extensive portfolio of more than 130 AI solutions designed to augment clinical accuracy and drive efficiency and improve patient outcomes. By integrating Thirona’s advanced technology into the Blackford Platform, Blackford can offer healthcare providers more powerful tools to support the analysis of thoracic CT scans for advancing the treatment of pulmonary diseases.
Thirona’s LungQ clinical software offered through the Blackford platform supports efficient workflows in diagnosis and treatment planning for COPD.
The ability to perform quantitative measurements within the identified sub-compartments on thoracic CTs aids clinicians in more accurate and precise diagnosis and timely management of the disease, according to a written statement released last month. Enabling personalized approach to treatment planning and monitoring of disease progression over time, automated LungQ analysis helps potentially improve patient’s outcomes, documented with objective evidence.
“By integrating Thirona's advanced technology into our platform, we are enhancing our ability to deliver comprehensive support for lung disease assessments to clinicians and their patients," said Ben Panter, Blackford Founder and CEO.
“Our robust technology was developed for specialized clinical trials and interventional pulmonology and has proven to deliver consistently high performance. In collaboration with integration partners like Blackford, we can make the most pivotal analysis available for clinical use, supporting clinicians in providing the best possible patient care.” says Eva van Rikxoort, CEO and Founder of Thirona.
Commercial Partnership with Voiant Enhances Pulmonary Disease Diagnosis
On April 24, the company reported it entered a global commercial partnership with Voiant for full scope serving in imaging-based clinical trials for pulmonary disease. A statement detailing the news stated the initiative combined Voiant’s expertise in supporting clinical trials in pulmonary drug and treatment development with Thirona’s expertise in advanced lung image analysis. Building further on several years of a fruitful cooperation, the two companies are now formally joining forces to provide full scope integral services for clinical trials with AI-powered lung image analysis.
With AI imaging playing an increasingly important role in clinical trials, companies recognize the market need for highly reliable integrated solutions supporting clients in imaging-based trials. Ensuring a robust quality assurance process along the whole trial is critical to deliver reliable and accurate outcomes, minimizing the risk of trial failure and saving on developmental costs.
“With Voiant's network of over 400 certified sites and Thirona's robust algorithm suites, our integrated platform efficiently meets comprehensive pulmonary research needs. Together, we offer rapid and reliable delivery of precise image endpoints for lung diseases”, said Jim Primerano, Voiant CEO.
“Imaging offers enormous new possibilities in drug and treatment development, but it requires solid experience to do it right and efficiently. Voiant’s operational expertise and capabilities in managing complex imaging workflows form a perfect match with our competences in AI-powered lung image analysis.” said van Rikxoort.
FDA Clearance of AI-based Software
On January 22, 2024, the company announced that it received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearance for the latest update of its AI-based clinical software LungQ (v3.0.0), making its new features widely available for use in hospitals in the United States.
Thirona’s state-of-the-art lung quantification platform LungQ consists of a wide range of robust high-performance AI-based algorithms trained on disease specific datasets, offering market-leading AI analytical capabilities. The unique, scalable AI platform delivers consistent and reproducible results, powering exploratory research studies as well as large multi-site clinical trials.
LungQ 3.0.0 builds on 10 years of clinical trials and 200+ publications to deliver advanced segmentation of pulmonary segments and subsegments, and is one of the only FDA-cleared solutions that is capable of using AI to automatically segment the pulmonary segments and subsegments found in the internal anatomy of the lung. Based on this analysis, which includes the identification of structures such as lobes, segments, subsegments, airways, and fissures, the technology performs an analysis of the lung tissue and the fissure completeness, supporting physicians in the diagnosis and documentation of pulmonary tissue images from CT thoracic datasets for each individual patient.
“A clearer understanding of lung anatomy helps enable broader adoption of minimally invasive treatments for lung diseases such as COPD and lung cancer, helping save more healthy lung tissue and lung function capacity. Acting as a map for lung anatomy, LungQ helps guide bronchoscopic navigation, leveraging AI to significantly enhance the precision, accuracy, and efficiency of bronchoscopic and surgical lung interventions,” said van Rikxoort after the approval. She added, “Solutions like LungQ are helping usher in a new era of personalized treatment for lung patients, enabling clinicians all over the world to conduct more advanced, easier-to-perform and less invasive procedures with full confidence.”
The LungQ software first received 510(k) clearance for version 1.1.0 in 2018. With new enhancements, based on deep-learning technology, v.3.0.0 helps guide pulmonologists through the best approach to access various and most peripheral locations within the lungs by delineating pulmonary structures and providing highly accurate reproducible CT values for pulmonary tissue. These insights provide essential, non-invasive quantitative support for diagnosis, treatment planning and follow up examination of lung patients. The company notes that its mission is to utilize the latest domain knowledge and artificial intelligence technology to create positive impact by making personalized treatments in lung diseases accessible for everyone.
More information: www.therona.eu
June 28, 2024 
