CHICAGO — Nov. 27, 2022 — HeartVista, a pioneer and leader in automated MRI solutions, today announced that it has changed its name to Vista.ai as the company broadens its sights to simplify and enhance MRI exams for anatomies beyond the heart. A major academic medical center has already begun a clinical study to evaluate the software for use with the prostate, and Vista.ai plans to launch a similar study for musculoskeletal scans in the near future. The company made the announcement from the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 108th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting held Nov. 27-Dec. 1, 2022, in Chicago.
Vista.ai’s One Click MRI AI-driven software-only solution makes it easier to acquire high quality MRI images by automating the exam workflow. The company initially targeted cardiac MRI (CMR) as it is increasingly considered the gold-standard cardiac diagnostici, yet the heart is a notoriously difficult and time-consuming anatomy to scan. Today, specially-trained CMR technologists need to perform an exam, and in the U.S., there is only one such technologist for every 20 MRI machinesii. One Click MRI’s benefits include simple, streamlined workflows and improved image consistency, so any MRI technologist can complete a cardiac scan in a regular mixed-use MRI time slot.
Vista.ai is demonstrating One Click MRI this week at Booth 5143 in the AI Showcase during RSNA exhibit hours. In addition, Raymond Y. Kwong, MD, MPH, FACC, FSCMR Director of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, will share case studies and research findings using the software in his clinical cardiac MRI practice. Dr. Kwong will present at noon CST, Monday, Nov. 28, 2022, in the RSNA AI Theater (#5149).
Vista.ai developed One Click MRI using sophisticated and versatile AI-based algorithms that would be scalable to other types of MRI scans. The company chose the prostate and spine as its next candidates because of known challenges with those exams and the number of people who could benefit. In the U.S., more than 10 million people receive prostate and spine MRI scans annually, 25% of the total MRI volume.iii
“Given the complexity of manual CMR, and the millions of patients who could benefit from the exam, it was clear that applying our automation technology to the heart would create enormous value in the market. Despite the evidence-backed advantages of MRI for diagnosing a myriad of heart conditions, only 2% of scans today are CMRsiv yet 700,000 people are dying of heart disease each year in the U.S.v,” said Itamar Kandel, Vista.ai’s CEO. “But we always knew it was just the beginning. Once we had the most complex anatomy tested, validated, adopted and endorsed by several elite medical institutions, we planned to roll out to other anatomies that would share in the benefits we have shown for numerous heart diseases.”
Each year clinicians in the U.S. conduct almost 40 million examsvi on the approximately 12,000 MRI machines installed in the country.vii But MRI scanners are only beneficial if trained healthcare professionals are available to run the exam, which is an escalating concern. In 2019, the U.S. had 20,000 fewer healthcare professionals than necessary to meet the needs of Americansiii, a situation that only worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Radiologist and technologist burnout is at a breaking point, which has only worsened since the pandemic given the exodus of medical professionals, backlog of imaging cases and increasing incidence of COVID-related illnesses, such as myocarditis and pericarditis,” said Dr. Scott Flamm, Section Head of Cardiovascular Imaging at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation. “To address the staffing shortages – particularly for challenging, time-consuming procedures like CMR – we are in earnest need of automation technologies like Vista.ai’s One Click MRI to ensure patients anywhere can receive the quickest possible diagnosis and treatment.”
About Vista.ai
Vista.ai is harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to offer clinicians an easy, cost-effective and less stressful way to conduct MRI studies. The company’s FDA 510(k) cleared One Click MRI™ software-only solution automates and dramatically simplifies a CMR exam, enabling a hospital to obtain greater scanner throughput or get a CMR program off the ground cost-effectively. One Click MRI is available for use on Siemens Healthineers and GE Healthcare MRI scanners. Vista.ai is funded by Khosla Ventures and the National Institute of Health’s Small Business Innovation Research program.
For more information, visit www.vista.ai. For Vista.ai’s RSNA media toolkit, visit rsna.vporoom.com/HeartVista.
i Writing Committee Members, & ACC/AHA Joint Committee Members (2022). 2022 AHA/ACC/HFSA Guideline for the Management of Heart Failure. Journal of cardiac failure, 28(5), e1–e167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cardfail.2022.02.010
ii Goldfarb JW, Weber J. Trends in Cardiovascular MRI and CT in the U.S. Medicare Population from 2012 to 2017. Radiol Cardiothorac Imaging. 2021 Feb 25;3(1):e200112. doi: 10.1148/ryct.2021200112.
iii Spine MRI Results and Medical Decision Making: Consider All Your Options. Elite Pain & Health. https://epainhealth.com/spine-mri-get-options/. Accessed Oct. 26, 2022.
iv Kalorama Information. MRI: World Market Analysis. November 2014.
v Heart Disease. Heart Disease Facts. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm. Accessed Oct. 24, 2022.
vi Conor Stewart. Number of MRI scans in the U.S. in 2016 and 2017, by facility type. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/820927/mri-scans-number-in-us-by-facility-type/. Accessed Oct. 20, 2022.
vii Conor Stewart. Number of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) units in selected countries as of 2019. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/282401/density-of-magnetic-resonance-imaging-units-by-country/. Accessed Oct. 20, 2022.
viii Association of American Medical Colleges. The Complexities of Physician Supply and Demand: Projections from 2019 to 2034. June 2021. https://www.aamc.org/media/54681/download?attachment. Accessed Oct. 20, 2022.